Relatives living on opposite sides of the occupation line between Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia will have no chance of celebrating the upcoming New Year together.
The de facto authorities of Tskhinvali region decided to close all the checkpoints at the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) on the holidays and not to allow Georgian and Ossetian citizens to visit each other.
The breakaway region’s de-facto security committee’s press office said that the movement across the ABL will be restrected from 10 pm, December 31 to 6 am, January 2.
The temporary closure of the administrative border is due to upcoming celebrations of the New Year. The closure is to "ensure security” during the festivities, the de-facto region said.
De-facto Tskhinvali region closes the only crossing-point between the occupied area and the rest of Georgia during different holidays on both sides of the ABL.
Georgia and the western world do not recognise the independence of Tskhinvali region and say that it is an integral part of Georgia. Only a handful of countries recognise South Ossetia and another Georgian breakaway region, Abkhazia, as sovereign states.
Russia and Nicaragua recognised the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region on August 26, 2008 following the Russia-Georgia war.
In 2009 Venezuela, Vanuatu, Nauru and Tuvalu took the same step, however several years’ later Vanuatu and Tuvalu in the Pacific Islands revoked their recognition and now declare Abkhazia and Tskhinvali as integral parts of Georgia.