SUKHUMI, May 12. /TASS/. A member of the People’s Assembly of Abkhazia, former Premier and Foreign Minister Sergey Shamba said Abkhazia needs to support the process of recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
"In Abkhazia, the attitude to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) is friendly, people here are closely following developments there, because they themselves lived through a war," Shamba told TASS on Tuesday.
According to the parliamentarian, the issue of recognizing DPR and LPR has not been discussed by Abkhazia’s leadership yet, "because there was no relevant request to Abkhazia on the part of these republics." "When it comes to mutual recognition, we must support this process," Shamba said.
"Some politicians in the leadership of Abkhazia have doubts, since a negotiation process is underway, and we are strategic allies of Russia, which takes part in this process. This part of the leadership believes that it’s difficult to take the right steps until we coordinate our stances," Shamba noted.
"There is another point of view, which I share. This process must be supported, because it’s justified from a moral point of view. If we ignore the friendly people’s struggle for independence, it will be unfair," he added.
Meanwhile, vice speaker of the Abkhaz parliament Daur Arshba told TASS that "the probability of recognizing DPR by Abkhazia was high, but one had to proceed from reality."
"We cannot but be grateful to DPR for recognizing Abkhazia. On the other hand, we must announce certain decisions proceeding from the general context so as not to harm the negotiation process and Russia’s efforts to resolve the crisis," Ashba said.