Monument to perished Sukhumi residents dismantled in Scotland

The memorial to the residents of Sukhumi, who perished in the 1992-1993 armed conflict, will be restored after making changes to the inscription on the stone. This was reported by the Council of Eastern Ayrshire, which includes the Scottish city of Kilmarnock.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that British authorities agreed to follow the demand of the Georgia's Ambassador to dismantle the above monument. In its turn, the Abkhaz Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has treated the demolition of the monument as an act of vandalism and aggression.

"We continue remembering the victims of the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict; and we don't want to offend anyone," the "Sputnik-Abkhazia" quotes Julie Haig, the public relations expert of the Council of Eastern Ayrshire Council, as stating.

Ms Haig has added that Sukhumi and Kilmarnock were "sister cities, but the agreement came to an end and was replaced by friendly relations."

According to Vitaly Shariya, an Abkhazian journalist, the monument in Kilmarnock "was a large stone slab with an image of the Abkhazian flag on top of it, and an inscription beneath it in English saying that it had been installed in memory of the deceased defenders of Abkhazia from Sukhumi – victims of the Georgian-Abkhaz war."

The journalist writes in his material posted on the website of the "Echo of the Caucasus" that "the monument stood quietly in Kilmarnock for more than 20 years." He wonders "why they've decided demolishing it now."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.