DECREE
ISSUED BY THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE USSR on
events in the Abkhaz ASSR
Deeply concerned at the situation established in
Abkhazia, the Supreme Council of the USSR decrees:
To entrust the Council of Ministers of the
Georgian SSR, Council of Ministers of the Abkhaz ASSR, the Ministry of Interior
of the USSR with the task of taking immediate and decisive measures in order to
restore the public order and secure socialist lawfulness and firm protection of
the population.
The Supreme council of the USSR offers to the People’s Deputies of the USSR from the Georgian SSR and Abkhaz ASSR to call on
their constituencies to the restoration of public order by peaceful means
respecting the principles of internationalism and friendship of the Soviet
Peoples.
The Supreme Council of the USSR recognizes as necessary the immediate restoration
of traffic along the Transcaucasus railway in order to remove critical
conditions hampering supply of the population, sustainable operation of
enterprises and institutions and delivery of tourists to the holiday centers.
The Supreme Council of the USSR appeals to all citizens residing on the territory
of the Abkhaz ASSR – Abkhazs, Georgians, and other nationalities to facilitate
the process of stabilization, establish peace and trust and make possible to
live and work peacefully.
Chairman of the Supreme Council
of the USSR M. Gorbachev.
17 July 1989
(Bulletin of the Peoples’ Deputies Congress of the USSR
and the Supreme Council of the USSR, M., 1989, # 7, p. 257)