APPEAL OF THE PRESIDENT AND THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH OSSETIA TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION V. V. PUTIN, TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF FEDERATION S.M. MIRONOV AND TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE DUMA G. N. SELEZNYEV

In 1774 united Ossetia voluntarily joined Russia. However, after collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 Georgia stated about its claims on the territories of South Ossetia. Then the people of South Ossetia started their struggle for protecting the right to self-identification and for the unity with Russia. Several thousands of people were annihilated by the Georgian troops, which in fact razed to the ground all of the settlements of South Ossetia.

After Georgia’s sovietization and its entry within the USSR, when the South Ossetian autonomous oblast was created, the problem of reunification remained in the agenda of South Ossetia. However, even then the Georgian authorities applied all possible measure to bar this aspiration.

They pursued the policy of ‘Goergianization’, aimed at exterminating from the people’s mind the very idea on possible reunification with Russia. The new alphabet based on Georgian scripts was introduced, Georgian became the language of instruction at school, national intellectuals were subjected to repressions. Thousands of Ossetians were resettled in North Ossetia. As a result of the policy implemented by the Georgian authorities the population of South Ossetia reduced from 106 thousand in 1940 to 99 thousand in 1987, although in the rest of territories of the USSR there was the trend to the increase of population.

At the end of 1980s Georgian National-extremists unleashed the campaign aimed at abolishing the autonomy of South Ossetia. Step by step they declared null and void all republican legal acts serving as a basis for existence of the autonomy; later on they abolished the autonomous entity. Discrimination and threats against Ossetian people turned into armed aggression from the Georgian side. Against the established background the people of South Ossetia, defending their right to existence and freedom, based on the union legislation, as well as on the fundamental principles of the international law – almost unanimously supported at the nation-wide Referendum on 19 January the idea on declaring the independence of South Ossetia and its unification with Russia.

In 1992 the Russian Federation firmly condemned the genocide against our people committed by the Georgian side and put an end to the bloodshed on the territory of South Ossetia. However, the further developments showed that Georgia did not abandon its policy towards South Ossetia after the war had been stopped. Moreover, even having acknowledged its responsibility for unleashing the war against South Ossetia, Georgia made no steps for compensation of the damage and for improving the grave situation of people. More than ten years South Ossetia – independent and self-sufficient state formation – exists in a factual independence, based on its own capacity and Russia’s assistance.

Being aware in adherence to the historical choice of the people of Ossetia made in 1774, expressed in fee-will unification with Russia, the Southern Ossetians still consider themselves as the dwellers of Russia. The most of the residents of South Ossetia are the citizens of Russia, and the rest of them stated about their aspiration to get the Russian citizenship. Russian language, together with the Ossetian one, is an official language of the Republic of South Ossetia. The South Ossetia considers itself as a part of Russian national space. Russian ruble is the only official currency in the territory of South Ossetia. The South Ossetian economy is fully integrated into the Russia’s economy.

Georgian officials openly declare in Tbilisi about their plans on forcible return of South Ossetia under Georgia’s jurisdiction. As the sovereignty and security of the Republic of South Ossetia, as well as its population are in danger, the President and the Parliament of the RSO - based on the historical, national and spiritual ties with Russia and on the will of people expressed at the Referendum of 1992 – appeal to the President, the Council of Federation and the State Duma of the Russian federation with a request to recognize the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia and reunify the South Ossetia with Russia, on the basis of the Law of RF on entering the new subject within the Russian Federation.

The President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity

The Chairman of the Parliament

of the Republic of South Ossetia Stanislav Kochiyev

Tskhinval, 15 January 2003

(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. 223-225/in Russian)