(RIA Novosti) - Georgia's president said Thursday Abkhazia's legitimate government would be based in the Kodori Gorge.
"With approval of Georgia's parliament and the country's prime minister, I made the decision to base, for the first time since 1993 in the Kodori Gorge, Abkhazia's legitimate government, which will spread Georgia's jurisdiction to this territory," Mikheil Saakashvili said addressing the nation, reports Trend.
"This decision has an important political significance. They were supposed to work there, but local criminals did not let them in," the Georgian leader said.
Saakashvili said Georgia was not going to aggravate the situation. "We are for peaceful resolution of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict," he said.
He added that Abkhazia's legitimate government would fully control the Kodori Gorge, develop and revive the territory. "The Kodori Gorge will become a temporary legitimate administrative center of Abkhazia," the president said.
The Kodori Gorge is in northern Georgia and is the de facto border between the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia and the Georgian-controlled territory. The lower part is controlled by Abkhazia and the upper part by Georgia.
Georgia conducted what it termed an anticrime operation in the upper Kodori after former presidential envoy Emzar Kvitsiani, militia leader, said on Sunday he did not recognize Tbilisi's rule.
Saakashvili said Thursday the Georgian authorities fully controlled the gorge.