APPEAL OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH OSSETIA TO THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, TO THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE NORTH OSSETIAN ASSR AND TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The aspiration of the nations of the former USSR towards the independence is accompanied with the different types of restrictions. The right of the people to self-identification is opposed with the principle of territorial integrity. Such approach is the major tool used for pushing the problem to the deadlock. However, the principle of territorial integrity regarding the parts of the former USSR has no ground in the international law. The grounds have been lost with the collapse of the USSR, which was the member of the UN and its territorial integrity was recognized in the international law and by all states of the world. However, the territorial integrity of the USSR is violated – the USSR is collapsed. The South Ossetian autonomy was also the entity enjoying the right to territorial integrity within the frame of its political status and borders – within the USSR and Georgia. However, the Georgian SSR, in which South Ossetian autonomous entity was included, violated the territorial integrity of the autonomy and divided its territory into raions (counties). At the same time it is important to note that the status of the Georgian SSR, as a part of the USSR, was formalized under the same Treaty and the Constitution that of the South Ossetian autonomy – the Treaty of 1922 on Creating the USSR and the Constitution of the USSR of 1924.

Therefore, the principle of the territorial integrity Georgia violated twice: firstly within the USSR, which was the unified state and secondly vis-à-vis the South Ossetian autonomy, which was the lowest chain in the hierarchy of the USSR’s national-territorial structure. It is not clear which legal base may secure the territorial integrity of the middle chain in the hierarchy, namely of Georgia, if the highest and the lowest chains (the USSR and South Ossetian autonomy) lost their territorial integrity. The Constitution of the USSR was the only legal base for territorial integrity for all chains of the Union hierarchy. However, it does not exist any more. Therefore, it is not lawful to make reference to the principle of territorial integrity, namely vis-à-vis Georgia; i.e. it has no legal foundation.

Before creation of the USSR Georgia was not the independent state. It had tried to become independent since the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, when two provinces – Kutaisi and Tbilisi -, with majority of Georgian population, declared themselves as the independent Georgian state. However, it was not recognized by the international community due to the lack of clear borders of newly created Georgian state, which annexed South Ossetia without legal determinations of its borders. Both attempts of Georgians to create the independent state (in 1917-1920 and in 1989-1992) were accompanied with the genocide of Ossetians. Georgia tried to get the right over the territory through annihilating and expelling the bearers of this right – Ossetians. The same methods are used today too.

The issue of territorial integrity of Georgia never had the legal base, as Georgia had no right over the South Ossetia during 200-year of inclusion of the Trans-Caucasus within the Russian empire. Only under the Bolsheviks’ Constitution (Stalin, Orjonikidze) the leadership of the USSR included South Ossetia on the basis of Geographical signs within the state of the Georgian SSR, just in compliance with the traditions of then leaders of the Soviet Union.

But the aforementioned legal base has lost its effect after the collapse of the USSR. The system of the Soviet legislation securing the territorial integrity of the USSR, Georgia and South Ossetian autonomy also is lost. The new state-legal relations between Georgia and South Ossetia, on the basis of relevant international law, may be elaborated through the new agreements based on the right to national self-identification within the current borders and within the political frame, which will be identified by the Ossetian and Georgian nations.

The historical arguments, although irreproachable, on indigenous origin of Ossetians in the Trans-Caucasus are found less relevant regarding South Ossetia. Those arguments are considered after the political and civil rights.

The Supreme Council of the Republic of South Ossetia declares:

Due to the collapse of the legal and state systems of the USSR there are no bases securing the territorial integrity of Georgia, and they have never existed over the recent 200 years. In fact, the aspiration of Georgian ethnocracy to the territory of South Ossetia is the imperialistic geopolitical strive. This aspiration conditions the primacy of force over the right, and Georgians realize it in a form of genocide against Ossetians. Evidently there is no confrontation between the principle of territorial integrity and the right to the self-identification, as the territorial integrity of Georgia had never been recognized under the international law over two centuries.

In reality two political wills are opposing each other. Political will of Georgian ethnocrats, who abolished the constitutional status of the people of South Ossetia and realized the policy of genocide, is in confrontation with the international law; but the will of Ossetian people to the self-identification and the forms of its realization meet all the international norms. It is impossible to develop the constructive policy through pushing the political motives above the legal ones.

Application of the principle of territorial integrity to Georgia and South Ossetia is not in confrontation with the right of a nation to the self-identification, as there are no legal signs of the principle of territorial integrity regarding Georgia. Therefore, the armed violent measures are applied by Georgian ethnocrats of different generations as the only effective mean against South Ossetia. So, those who support unlawful aspirations of Georgia to the territory of South Ossetia indulge the genocide against Ossetians. For the sake of Law and Justice, these aspirations shall be condemned.

Adopted at the session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of South Ossetia

Tskhinval, 10 May 1992

(Conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Documents 1989-2006 (Supplement to “Kavkazskie Sborniki”, edition #1). Collected and commented by M. A. Volkhonski, B. A. Zakharov, N. Y. SIlaev. – Moscow, 2008, p. 208-210/in Russian)