Nino Burjanadze, Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament shares some initial comments on Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, January 26 speech on the occasion of the first part of session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg January 26, 2005. Burjanadze said that this was the first opportunity that the Georgian president had to present the government’s white paper on how best to solve the Georgian-Ossetian conflict and to provide information give specifics of what is contained in the proposal to the people of South Ossetia, a Georgian frozen conflict zone.

Nino Burjanadze said that the “whole world could see our real desires and now is the time for others to show their intentions. She appreciates for the efforts put forward by international organizations, especially the work of the Venice Commission, and it is hoped that this will lead to construction progress in moving the peace process forward. “But this does not mean that we will accept this suggestions automatically,” the Chair of Parliament added while emphasizing “that regardless the official title of South Osetia that will be given to it in future, this region will not have a kind of status that would be detrimental the national interests of Georgia.

Nino Burjanadze perceives a three year cooling period for transition as being quite in order and how “that during this period, it will then be possible to address how best to deal with our relations and that she hoped that the other side would do the same,” she said. A footnote is given here by Nino Burjanadze that key figures in the unrecognized governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia listen to the speech together during their visits to Russia and this has become a tradition. She explains, “these journeys to Moscow by separatist leaders would not be a problem if it was not for the recommendations that they are given in Russia and which are interfering regulatory processes of the conflict.”