TBILISI. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The Georgian parliament believes that the threat of armed invasion of the country, in particular, of the Kodori gorge is becoming more real with each day, Georgy Baramidze, head of the parliamentary committee on defense and security, told the Thursday session of the committee.
He called on the Georgian leadership to take very seriously Defense Minister David Tevzadze's statement on "concentration of manpower and equipment of a possible aggressor in the lower part of the gorge and on approaches to it" allegedly registered by Georgian special services.
Baramidze suggested appealing to the Georgian leadership on behalf of the parliament asking to summon an extraordinary session of the parliament and a session of the National Security Council to elaborate the list of urgent "political, diplomatic and military measures that will enable Georgia to avert the threat."
According to Baramidze, the main threat comes from Russian peacekeepers operating in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone as part of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces.
"The concentration of armed formations and combat equipment at approaches to the Kodori gorge confirms that the Russian military support Abkhaz separatists, try to prevent stabilization in Georgia, to disrupt the arrival of military instructors from the United States and the beginning of serious strengthening of the Georgian army," Baramidze stressed.
At the same time Abkhaz Vice President Valery Arshba said that Georgian reports on the concentration of Abkhaz troops in the lower part of the Kodori gorge are "pure provocation".
"No unsanctioned and uncoordinated relocation of peacekeeping forces takes place in the conflict zone, the troops are not concentrating in the Kodori gorge or at approaches to it," the headquarters of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces told Interfax-Military News Agency.