Page 6 - GEOGRptJun19

2.0 Politics
2.1 Zelenskiy returns Ukraine citizenship to ex-Georgia
president Saakashvili
New Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has restored former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, granted and then stripped again by his predecessor Petro Poroshenko's after the two men had a falling out.
Zelenskiy signed a special decree on May 28. In February 2018, Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine for violation of migration regulations. The move followed the cancellation of his citizenship by Poroshenko
In October, Ukraine's State Migration Service refused to grant refugee status to Saakashvili. The move followed September's crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border by the politician despite him having no valid passport. In July, Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, leaving him stateless.
Saakashvili is former head of the Odesa regional administration.
In April, Saakashvili said he is going to return to Ukraine if Poroshenko loses the second round of the presidential election. According to Saakashvili, as soon as Poroshenko loses power, his order not to let the Georgian politician enter the country also loses force. "This is beyond doubt," Saakashvili told the TV channel Current Time on April 1, adding that he will take advantage of "the legal right" to return to Ukraine.
2.2 Georgia-Azerbaijan border commission meets to settle David Gareji monastery issue
The Georgian-Azerbaijani border delimitation commission met over May 23-24 in Baku to resume talks on non-agreed inter-state border sections including some in the vicinity of Georgia’s David Gareji (Davit Gareja) monastery complex where tensions mounted several weeks ago.
Clerics of the mediaeval retreat complained on the eve of Orthodox Easter in April that Azerbaijani border guards were not allowing them into part of the complex (Udabno monastery) and were also preventing visitors and pilgrims from entering its oldest sections. Access has reportedly since been restored. Azerbaijan considers Udabno as situated on its territory, but many Georgians dispute that assessment.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze on May 26 announced that Azerbaijan has suspended the construction of a road near the monastery complex “to avoid complications” during border negotiations between the two countries, Agenda.ge informed .
The rise of the tensions related to David Gareji might have been spurred by
6 GEORGIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com