KUTAISI, Georgia -- A court in the Georgian town of Kutaisi has
sentenced the captain of a Turkish tanker to 24 years in jail for the
"illegal crossing of the Georgian border and smuggling," RFE/RL's
Georgian Service reported.
Mehmet
Coskun Ozturk was captaining the "Buket" on its way last month from
Turkey to the breakaway region of Abkhazia with gasoline aboard when it
was impounded by Georgian authorities to the Black Sea port of Poti.
Judge
Vakhtang Todia told RFE/RL that Ozturk was convicted of multiple
illegal crossings into Georgian territorial waters and smuggling to
Abkhazia.
Ozturk's vessel, reportedly laden with 2,000 tons of
gasoline and 700 tons of diesel fuel, was bound for ...
On
Aug. 17, a Turkish ship named Buket was sailing 96 miles off the coast
of Sinop near the border of the Turkish economic region when it was
detained by the Georgian Coast Guard and brought into the port of Poti.
The
ship was taken to the Batumi Port to be sold, ...
This article was first published on 27 August 2009 in Russian - Politcom.ru
Abkhazia
and South Ossetia celebrate the first anniversary of their independence
from Georgia on 26 August. That is how their current status is
correctly defined. It is unlikely that anyone seriously thinks that the
recognition of the independence of the two former autonomous areas of
the Georgian SSR has turned them into genuinely independent entities.
Today Abkhazian and Ossetian choices have been made in favor of Russia.
And this in turn has enabled them to achieve the aim that the elites of
these entities have had for many years - leaving Georgia. Not only de
facto, as has been the case with Abkhazia since 1993 and South ...
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