Georgia marks 10th year since war with Russia over breakaway region

The war erupted in 2008 when Georgian troops failed to regain control over the Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia, ending with a France-brokered truce.

Relatives of Georgia's servicemen killed during the 2008 brief war with Russia over control of South Ossetia mourn during a ceremony on the 10th anniversary of the conflict at the memorial cemetery in Tbilisi on August 8, 2018.
AFP

Relatives of Georgia's servicemen killed during the 2008 brief war with Russia over control of South Ossetia mourn during a ceremony on the 10th anniversary of the conflict at the memorial cemetery in Tbilisi on August 8, 2018.

Georgia marked the tenth anniversary on Wednesday of the outset of its 2008 conflict with Russia over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The war erupted in 2008 when Georgian troops tried unsuccessfully to regain control over the Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia and Russia sent troops that routed the Georgian military in five days of fighting.

August 8, 2008 was the first full day of fighting. 

In Tbilisi on Tuesday night, activists protested outside the Russian embassy.

The war ended in an agreement brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy under which both sides were to pull troops back to pre-war positions.

'Restoration of territorial integrity very close'

On Wednesday, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili marked the anniversary with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial cemetery in Tbilisi for Georgian soldiers killed in the conflict.

"Ten years have passed since the August tragedy. I want to remind everyone that this was not the first aggression against a free Georgia," Margvelashvili said.

"First Russia tried to punish us during the first years during the restoration of independence. This was the war of the 1990s which Russia was conducting in Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Margvelashvili said 2008 was another wave of "perfidious" attacks against Georgia. 

"Today, when we think about the past we see that victory and restoration of our territorial integrity is very close."

EU voices support for Georgia 

After the war, Georgia entirely lost control of both South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia.

Russia has strengthened its military presence in both regions and recognised them as independent states, but only a few countries have followed suit.

The EU on Tuesday reiterated its "firm support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders" and lamented the Russian military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine have elaborated a joint communique calling on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgian territories.

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