TBILISI. Oct 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Saturday described the Aland archipelago, an autonomous Swedish-speaking province of Finland, as "one of the best examples of autonomy" and argued it could be used as the model for the status of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region.
Saakashvili, who was speaking to Georgian reporters, is visiting Finland with Dmitry Sanakoyev, head of a pro-Georgian South Ossetian administration that has no power in the secessionist region and is rejected by its authorities.
"Dmitry Sanakoyev and I have come here to see what a successful autonomy means, an autonomy whose people have all their rights protected," Saakashvili said. "This is a clear example of how everything can be dealt with in a civilized way," he said.
Sanakoyev, talking to reporters, called Aland's autonomy "an ideal model to use for South Ossetia."