Georgian Olympic Team Releases Statement on 2014 Sochi Games
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, March 1, 2010, 5:45 AM
Protests of the 2014 Olypmics in Sochi, Russia have already begun because of poor relations between Russia and the Republic of Georgia. Russia illegally occupies Abkhazia, a region of Georgia, and is building military bases in the area and issuing Russian passports to the people who live there. The US left Vancouver with the most medals by any country at any Winter Games.
The Georgian Olympic Team released this statement on the 2014 Winter Olympics planned for Sochi, Russia.
The extinguishing of the Olympic flame in Vancouver on Sunday reminds us that four years from now, the XXII Winter Olympic Games are scheduled to be held in the Russian city of Sochi—just 20 miles from the border of Abkhazia, a region of Georgia occupied and ethnically cleansed by Russian troops after Moscow invaded our country in 2008.
Today, about 5,000 Russian soldiers remain in Abkhazia in violation of a ceasefire agreement signed by Russia and Georgia and brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. More than 350,000 Georgian citizens have been forced to flee their homes. They now live in camps for internally displaced people outside of Abkhazia—in secure areas closer to Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi—and they are unable to return to their communities. Many of their houses have been destroyed or taken, and their businesses and lands have been expropriated. Russia, which illegally occupies Abkhazia, is building military bases in the region and issuing Russian passports to the people who live there.
As we leave Vancouver and look ahead to the 2014 games, we hope that the world will not forget that just a few miles from Sochi, Russian troops have invaded a sovereign country and brutally seized and occupied an entire region that is not theirs. Along with the South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region of Georgia that it also invaded, Russia now occupies 20 percent of our country.
We ask our fellow athletes, and people who believe in freedom everywhere, to join us in demanding that Russia end its occupation of Georgia, that it stop exploiting the people and resources of Abkhazia’s fragile Black Sea coastal zone for construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi, and that it allow Georgia’s internally displaced people to return to their homes. The Olympic Games should not be built on a foundation of violence and ecological disaster.
– The Georgian Olympic Team
27 February 2010
Related… Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Russian Olympic officials to quit or be fired on Monday. Russia limped in 11th in the medals table in Vancouver with just three golds, its worst ever tally. The US set a medal record at Vancouver with 37 total team medals.
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Published May 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm - 66 Comments
burt commented:
Obama’s friends invited themselves in and never left.
Cassandra commented:
Sochi was chosen because of Putin’s ties to the place–not because it’s a good venue for winter sports. Just look at the map: does it appear to be one of the Russian cities that’s most likely to be covered with snow?
greenfairie commented:
Every time the Russians get the Olympics, they do something worthy of a boycott. Nice going.
Andreas K. commented:
Let’s just… uh… give the games to China. Again.
bg commented:
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re: [More than 350,000 Georgian citizens have been forced to flee their homes. They now live in camps for internally displaced people outside of Abkhazia—in secure areas closer to Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi—and they are unable to return to their communities.]
calling the UN..
UN where are you??
come in UN..
UN, anyone??
oh wait..
go here, click on Anne Jolis: Rwanda’s Genocide:
The Untold Story – WSJ.com to view entire article..
==
Andreas K. commented:
Going to rain on a parade now: last I checked Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia.
And just a question…
Where were all of you when Kosovo declared independence after the mohammedans there conducted ethnic cleansing and made most of the Serbs there flee into Serbia?
That one was celebrated in the West.
And then Abkhazia did the same… everybody screamed murder.
Strange.
bg commented:
++
The Pride of Russia
[President Dmitry Medvedev announced yesterday that he won't attend Sunday's closing ceremony in Vancouver to claim in person the Olympic flag for Russia, the host of the next winter games in Sochi in 2014. Politics, and a bit of sport, got in the way.
Mr. Medvedev had hoped to combine Sunday's pomp with a gold medal hockey match-up earlier in the day. Then the Russian men's squad, a pre-tournament favorite that features the game's dominant player in
Alex Ovechkin, got bounced out of the medal round by Canada.
The defeat was a sour coda to a disappointing Olympic performance for a one-time winter games superpower. As of yesterday, Russia stood fifth among medal winners, with 13 total and only three gold. The speaker of the Duma has demanded an investigation and a senior Kremlin aide called the results "dismal." Mr. Medvedev knew well enough to avoid getting tainted with what's considered a national debacle.]
go here, click on The Sports Pride of Russia
– WSJ.com to view entire article..
==
bg commented:
++
Andreas K. @ 11:51 am #6
please don’t put all of US in the same box per se..
sort of sounds like those who blame white America for slavery..
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Arius commented:
The truth is nearly the opposite of whatever the Georgians say.
Joanne commented:
The Canadians received more gold medals than any country ever in Olympic winter games…..just bragging.
Joanne commented:
Andreas K. – some of us know what the h*ll is going on, so don’t worry – not all is lost.
I think the games in Russia should be boycotted.
And for example, the province of Quebec can think all it wants about and have umpteen votes on separating from Canada, but the land belongs to Canada – the French can just get back on the boats and bugger off if they don’t like it. Taking over a region or country, even with the approval of a majority of the people, does not mean they have any right to do so. I can take residence in someone else’s house, occupied or not, but it doesn’t give me any right to put legal ownership in my name.
bg commented:
++
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
by Michael J. Totten
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bg commented:
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Joanne @ 2:25 pm #11
Kudos Canada!!
==
bg commented:
++
Bosnia: Karadzic accuses Muslims of killing their own people
[Karadzic told the tribunal it was a stage-managed “trick” for which Bosnian Serb forces were blamed and later bombed by NATO.
He also showed the court pictures of an empty marketplace, claiming it was the scene shortly before, as he put it, hundreds appeared and the attack was reported.
He said Muslim authorities had brought killed Muslim
soldiers to the market to simulate a massacre.
“Killing their own people was part of the ideology
of Muslim authorities,” Karadzic said.
“The prosecution has accepted war tricks created by Bosnian Muslims
and accused the Serbs for crimes they didn’t commit," Karadzic said.
Earlier Karadzic told the tribunal that militant Muslim leaders were responsible for the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, saying that local Serbs
were forced to act in self-defence.]
this has gone on since the day Muhammad
handed out his Muslim instruction booklet..
albeit Obama is a Marxist, anyone who doubts he shares Islamist
“ideology” is setting themselves up for a serious culture shock..
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Old One commented:
Perhaps Russia’s dismal performance at the winter olympics has something to do with an absurdly low birthrate and the fact that ethnic Russian women by age 45 average only 1 child born but has had five abortions.
Meanwhile Russia’s muslim minorites have a sky high birthrate. Russia’s dismal performance at the winter olympics stems in no small part reflects the fact there are so few Russians in the 15-30 year old demographic. Winter sports excellence is not an activity at which older age groups excell.