Soviet Georgia Demands Talks for Independence

The Parliament of the Soviet republic of Georgia on Friday condemned its forcible annexation to the Soviet Union more than half a century ago and demanded talks on restoration of its independence, a local news agency reported.

Georgia thus becomes the fourth of the 15 Soviet republics, after Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, to take action condemning its incorporation into the Soviet Union.

Lithuania’s Parliament is expected to vote on a formal declaration of independence on Sunday.

The Georgian Parliament, called the Supreme Soviet, also condemned a proposal made by Mikhail S. Gorbachev to create a strong Soviet presidency, according to a transcript of the resolution read to the Associated Press over the telephone by the Independent News Agency of Georgia.

The resolution said the law, which would allow the president to declare a state of emergency and martial law, introduces “an authoritarian presidential rule, which may be interpreted as the president’s right to remove organs of power . . . and thus to completely eliminate the republic’s sovereignty.”

Gorbachev hopes to win approval of the constitutional amendment in Monday’s special session of the Congress of People’s Deputies, despite progressives’ complaints that the draft would give him “dictatorial” powers. It is widely assumed Gorbachev would be elected to the post at the same session.

Georgia has long had an active independence movement, but has not pushed its case through parliamentary means. Many Georgian independence leaders said that would be tacit admission of Soviet power even though the Baltics have won greater autonomy and edged closer to independence by using Gorbachev’s reforms to elect trusted local leaders.

The official news agency Tass reported that the Georgian Parliament had adopted a resolution saying the presidency proposal restricts sovereign rights of the republic. But Tass said nothing in its four-sentence report about the section of the resolution condemning the Red Army’s occupation of Georgia in February, 1921, and the subsequent treaties incorporating Georgia as part of the Soviet Union.

According to the independent news agency, the text states, “The Supreme Soviet of Georgia denounces the occupation and annexation of Georgia by Soviet Russia and considers it to be an international crime.” It calls the entrance of troops “a military interference, intervention and occupation with the aim of overthrowing the existing political order.”

“It is necessary to start talks on restoration of an independent state of Georgia,” the resolution says.

The republic is in the southern Caucasus and borders Turkey between the Caspian and Black seas.