SUKHUM, June 01 /ITAR-TASS/. Alexander Ankvab, who tendered his resignation as Abkhazia’s president on Sunday, has called on the nation “to show restraint, not yield to provocation and to refrain from any rallies.
The pro-governmental party Amtsakhara came out with an initiative to hold a mass rally “in support of Abkhazia’s constitutional system” in Sukhum on June 2.
Ankvab however said he was confident people “would take his position with understanding.”
“I am thankful for that to all of you and I have not a slightest doubt your support is sincere,” Ankvab said in an address to the nation circulated by his press office. “Over these days, I have received hundreds of messages, hundreds of telephone calls from people I know personally. But the majority of such messages came from people I had never met. I was very touched by their concern over the fate of the country, myself and the current developments. I am absolutely sure that all our efforts were not in vain and were of help to our fellow countrymen. I have always works this way.”
He said he took his final decision to resign after numerous consultations with public activists, voters and supporters. “This decision does not meet the aspirations of the majority of our citizens and of those with whom we have been looking for the way out of this situation. But, nonetheless, I think this is the only right decision,” he stressed.
Ankvab said that the latest steps taken by the country’s parliament “run counter to the constitution and laws of Abkhazia.” In such conditions, according to Ankvab, only of these decision was “politically acceptable, although illegitimate - the decision to appoint the date of early presidential elections.