Akhalgori Residents Intend Protest Assembly in Tbilisi

Mari Otarashvili, Akhalgori

Akhalgori Residents without Compensations 

Permanent residents of Akhalgori district intend to arrive soon and hold protest assembly in Tbilisi. This part of Akhalgori residents has permanently lived in the district since the war in August of 2008 and has not received any aid from the Government of Georgia. 

“We have received IDP status recently. Before that, we were declared traitors because we continued living in the district after the war. At that time, main priority of the government was to empty the Akhalgori district from the population to show to foreigners that Georgian people were persecuted by Ossetian or Russian people here. Now, after the government changed, we had some hopes but no concrete measures were taken so far. So, we want to gather here, hire mini-buses and travel to Tbilisi,” resident of Ikoti village in Akhalgori district said.

As we were informed, Akhalgori district residents have not yet agreed on concrete venue of the assembly. “We have not thought of it yet – IDP Ministry or Ministry of Reintegration. We will negotiate about it and agree. We intended to arrive in Tbilisi and hold assembly before elections too but then we decided it would be better to wait for the election results. We want to remind new government of their promises made during pre-election campaign – more attention should be paid to the people who still live in the occupied territories,” a woman from Mosabruni village said and added “hope no incidents will occur and they will not block the road.”

Akhalgori after Presidential Elections

Transportation towards Akhalgori district across the de-facto border renewed from Tuesday morning. Before that, from October 27 to October 29, the administrative border was blocked. De-facto security committee of South Ossetia had made decision due to presidential elections. The reason of blocking the border was “possible tense situation on the Presidential Election Day, October 27.”

Majority of Akhalgori district residents doubted a month before the Election Day that the border would be locked. 

A resident of the district Granny Ksenia was collecting apples dropped in her fruit-garden and talking with us. “I expected them to lock the border but I did not care about it. I cut all contacts with Tbilisi and do not care who will be elected. I do not care because they solve all problems without us and why should I worry?” the respondent smiled counting red and yellow apples. 

Unlike her, her husband wanted to participate in the elections but the locked administrative border did not allow him to. “My husband wanted to go to the elections. He could not travel there in advance. It is autumn and we have plenty of work here. He was a bit sorry for missing the chance but since Margvelashvili won the elections, he said, I would not care,” Granny Ksenia said and continued counting apples. She wants to dry them out.

It is calm in the streets of the small town; they got emptier since the 2008 August War. 

“I dream of old times when Ossetian and Georgian people peacefully talked with each other and Akhalgori was full of life. The new government cannot do anything more important than restoration of old time,” our old respondent said.