Fueling regional tensions, South Ossetian air defenses Sunday forced down a Georgian Mi-8 helicopter with the defense minister and deputy chief of the General Staff on board. The pilot managed to land and no one was hurt.
"The Foreign Ministry regards such actions by the Georgian authorities as a provocation. They obviously aim at frustrating the peace process in the Georgian-Ossetian [conflict] resolution, and prove that Tbilisi openly prepares for alternative ways of resolving the problem," the ministry said in a statement.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said earlier Monday in its statement that the incident with the helicopter showed the ineffectiveness of Russian peacekeepers stationed in the conflict zone.
"The fact a Georgian Defense Ministry helicopter was fired on proves again that the peacekeeping operation in the Tskhinvali Region with Russian peacekeepers and the current negotiating format are totally useless, ineffective and need to be urgently replaced," the statement said.
Yury Popov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador at large, said earlier that, "Georgia is to blame for violating the air space of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. I do not want to comment on the actions of those who attacked the helicopter, but initially the incident was provoked by the Georgian side, as an aircraft has no right to violate the conflict zone's air space."
Merab Antadze, the Georgian state minister for conflict resolution, said in turn that Georgia will not be asking for special permission to fly its aircraft.
"Georgian air space is unified. It was never divided, and that is why our aircraft do not need any special permission to fly," Antadze said.
Relations between Georgia and the northern province of South Ossetia have been tense since the early 1990s, when the republic proclaimed its independence following a bloody conflict with Georgia.
A trilateral peacekeeping force - Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian - maintains a fragile peace in the conflict zone, but Georgia is seeking to re-establish full control over the republic and introduce international peacekeepers to the area.
Russian peacekeepers said Monday they tightened security in connection with the helicopter attack.
