{"id":675,"date":"2020-01-17T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=675"},"modified":"2024-09-04T18:34:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:34:19","slug":"tsnelisi-chorchana-crisis-facts-details-and-chronology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Tsnelisi-Chorchana Crisis: Facts, Details and Chronology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?page_id=395\">Tornike Zurabashvili<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nThe decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to set up an observation post between the village of Chorchana in the Khashuri municipality and the village of Tsnelisi in the Russian-held Tskhinvali Region\/ South Ossetia in August 2019 caused weeks of crisis at the occupation line. The situation did not escalate into an open confrontation but the high concentration of armed security actors significantly deteriorated the security environment on the ground.  \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The situation grew particularly tense on August 29 when Tskhinvali representatives issued an ultimatum to Georgian authorities and warned them with \u201clegal action\u201d if they failed to remove the observation post. Tbilisi refused to accept the terms. In response, Tskhinvali authorities established new positions deeper into the Tbilisi-controlled territory in a forested area between the villages of Chorchana and Kobi. They also decided to temporarily close the crossing points in the Georgian-majority Akhalgori and Perevi areas in an apparent effort to pressure Tbilisi to withdraw the observation post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Tsnelisi-Chorchana events were important on many accounts. First and foremost, the decision to set up a police post was significantly detached from Tbilisi\u2019s professed policy of \u201cpragmatism\u201d towards Russia. No less important was the role of the Russian Federation \u2013 instead of engaging in the crisis directly, Moscow opted for acting under the guise of Tskhinvali. This was also the first time the European Union\u2019s Monitoring Mission confirmed an instance of borderization on the Tbilisi-controlled territory.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gfsis.org\/files\/library\/opinion-papers\/130-expert-opinion-eng.pdf\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The&nbsp;paper&nbsp;was&nbsp;published&nbsp;by&nbsp;Rondeli Foundation, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies and&nbsp;was made possible with the support of the US Embassy in Georgia. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?page_id=892\">Tornike Zurabashvili<\/a> is an EDSN Fellow, who brings more than eight years of experience as a researcher\/contributor on internal and external politics of Georgia, including at leading Georgian think tanks \u2013 the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies and the Georgia\u2019s Reforms Associates. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tornike Zurabashvili The decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to set up an observation post between the village of Chorchana in the Khashuri municipality and the village of Tsnelisi in the Russian-held Tskhinvali Region\/ South Ossetia in August 2019 caused weeks of crisis at the occupation line. The situation did not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tsnelisi-Chorchana Crisis: Facts, Details and Chronology - Democratic Security Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/demsecinstitute.org\/?p=675\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tsnelisi-Chorchana Crisis: Facts, Details and Chronology - Democratic Security Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Tornike Zurabashvili The decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to set up an observation post between the village of Chorchana in the Khashuri municipality and the village of Tsnelisi in the Russian-held Tskhinvali Region\/ South Ossetia in August 2019 caused weeks of crisis at the occupation line. 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