It is “regrettable” that Armenia voted against Georgia-sponsored resolution at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) reiterating the right of return of all displaced persons and refugees to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Nino Kalandadze, the Georgian deputy foreign minister, said on July 5.

Armenia was among those thirteen countries, also including Russia, which voted against the non-binding resolution, passed with 57 votes at the UN General Assembly on June 29; 74 countries abstained.

Georgia is pushing such resolutions at the UNGA annually since 2008, saying that it aims at keeping the issue high on the international agenda and widening circle of support towards the issue.

“To our regret, Armenia does not share our official position; we have made it clear that Georgia-sponsored resolution has an exclusively humanitarian nature and does not have any political purposes,” Kalandadze said at a news conference.

She said that Armenia had a position different from Tbilisi on the issue because of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
 
Kalandadze also said that before the vote at UNGA the Georgian Foreign Ministry sent a written request for support to Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian; the latter met his Georgian counterpart, Grigol Vashadze, during his visit to Tbilisi on June 29, just hours before the voting in UNGA.

Kalandadze said that Georgia “openly tells the friends” that their position regarding the issue is not acceptable for Tbilisi.

“We will continue our efforts to convince our friends, that our position is right,” the Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister said.