The Anaklian Farmers are not Going to Hand Over their Land

The population of the village situated by the Black Sea coast demonstrates in front of the regional municipality building against the attempts to take their land away. The Anaklian population opposes the selling of 25 hectares of land by auction, as they have been using the land for years. The Anaklian farmers are planning to hold a demonstration in Tbilisi in front of the building of the State Chancellery and they are requesting to meet the president.

The Regional Agency of State Property’s Registration and Privatization in Samegrelo, Guria and Svaneti made a statement in Poti on 25 October on having a special auction for 91 non-leased agricultural lands in Anaklia, Ganmukhuri and Darcheli in the Zugdidi municipality.

The Anaklian population has requested to take part in the auction, but they are sure that the auction will be conducted unfairly. This is the reason for their protest. The Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia put the agricultural land in Anaklia, which was formerly served to grow citrus plants, on the list of non-leased agricultural land up for privatization. It turned out that the land owned by L.L.C. “Anaklia” was had been leased for 50 years by its chief, Pridon Svanidze, a few years ago.

Eka Gvilia: “45 families had a contract with Pridon Svanidze. We were using the land to grow the maize for almost 30 years. We depend on these fields for our food supply. The price for one hectare of the land is 69 lari. We know that we cannot afford this price for the land. We demand a reasonable price for the land in order for us to be able to keep these plots.”

The Anaklian farmers got worried because of the published information that a businessmen from Kutaisi and not the local inhabitants wanted to appropriate the 25 hectare of land. Anaklian Robert Khubua also wanted to privatize this land. Nothing is surprising and unexpected about this except that the mayor of the Zugdidi municipality, Aleksandre Kobalia, and his father, who is a member of the Georgian parliament, Grigol Kobalia, are protecting him. Khubua does not deny that in case of appropriation of these plots there will be rest homes and hotels built on the land, but he does deny an agreement with the Kobalias and does not admit any ties between them.

The local inhabitants talk about Grigol Kobalia’s interest in the coast of the Black Sea; they saw him with Arabs during their trip a little while ago. The Arabs from the United Arab Emirates visited Anaklia with 12 Jeeps and also looked at the bank of the river Enguri and the Black Sea, near to where the youth camp of the “Patriots” is situated. The Zugdidian population also saw the member of parliament and the Arab Sheikhs while walking in Dadiani’s garden, but it is still uncertain whether Grigol Kobalia sparked the Arabs’ interest in the Black Sea coast and whether they will invest in its development.

Today the governor of the municipality, Aleksandre Kobalia, did not meet the participants of the demonstration in front of the municipality building. Juli Rogava: “Kobalia just hid from us today, he is scared to meet the people. He cannot make decisions, nor can he help the population”.

According to Kakhaber Mikelbaia, the lawyer of the Samagrelo office of the Human Rights Center, the Anaklian population has been using the mentioned plots for years and during the auction they have a first right to buy it. Therefore their rights must be taken into account.

Nana Pajava, Zugdidi.