Property for sale in South Ossetia

1/ Capital: Tskhinvali

Is the capital of South Ossetia, a de facto independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being part of Georgia's Shida Kartli region, except by Russia and Nicaragua, which regard it as an independent state.

2/ Country: South Ossetia

Is an independent republic in the South Caucasus, formerly the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. The capital is Tskhinvali.

3/ Property for sale in South Ossetia

South Ossetia has never made any secret of the fact that it wishes to reunite with its ethnic brethren in North Ossetia. It has said this consistently since breaking away from Georgia in the early 1990s - and, given Russia's aversion to breakaway movements inside its own border, such as that in Chechnya, this has also been comfortable for Moscow. The alternative would be an independent South Ossetia and the risk of agitation in North Ossetia to join their brethren in this newly independent state - something Russia would find intolerable.

After years of waiting, thousands of refugees eking out a living in this south Russian city now have a way to reclaim their old houses in Georgia or to be compensated for their lost property.

Georgia took a dramatic step earlier this year toward reconciliation with ethnic Ossetians who fled the fighting between forces loyal to Tbilisi and South Ossetian separatists in the early 1990s. A long-awaited property restitution law for victims of the conflict finally took effect on 1 January.

The restitution law allows those who lost property during the conflict, Ossetians and Georgians alike, to reclaim their houses if they can prove legal ownership. If the property is damaged they are entitled to adequate compensation or equivalent housing. Georgia promised to enact such legislation as a condition of joining the Council of Europe in 1999, but little happened until last year when the government drafted the law with advice from the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission on legal affairs.