34 Families Living in the “Gvirabi” (“The Tunnel”) Buildings Stay Homeless

“Can Georgia be called a democratic state? We hope we will not become illegal emigrants”, - says the old man Ramaz Tarieladze.
34 Families living in the so-called “Gvirabi” buildings in the village of Kapandidi, in the Khelvachauri district, were moved to these buildings in 1995 by the government. Today the government of Adjara transferred the mentioned buildings into the possession of the Ministry of Defense without any auction. The families living in the challenging conditions are threatened to stay homeless.

The rooms have been repaired by the residents, they are filled with buckets when it is raining; and those buckets are full of raindrops. It takes several days for the walls to dry. But, “who cares about the dampness”, - says a mother of three children, Lana Tavdgiridze.

“We have nowhere to go”, - says one of the residents, Shota Kokobinadze, during the conversation: “When we moved in here, everything was destroyed. The fact that today this building is in this condition is our merit. The former government let us move in here because we had nowhere to go. Now they (the present government) tell us that we have been moved in here illegally and that we posses nothing”.
Most of those families living there are economic migrants; the others belong to the group whose houses were burnt.

“I was in the first category list of economic migrants. After a landslide my house was in ruins. It has been decided that geologically speaking it is impossible to live in the village of Makho. And now the regional government has lost my documents and they are unable to deal with my case”, - says Manana Takidze, who also moved to the settlement of “Gvirabi”.

Tariel Mutidze does not even get a disability pension anymore. A few years ago he had lost three fingers while chopping wood. His pension was canceled for the following reason: “I was told by the regional doctor that in order to be considered for a pension I should have no fingers left”, - says Mutidze.

“My house burned down, everything was reduced to ashes. We were asking for shelter and they moved us in here provided that we would get a house. That government is gone now and the present government offers us to move away from here. We are categorically against living in Tsalka or other regions, - says Nana Kontselidze.
The deputy governor of the Khelvachauri municipality, Levan Dolidze, did not even know whether the so-called “Gvirabi” buildings were in possession of the Ministry of Defense or they had just become the possession of the Ministry of Defense. According to Dolidze the government will learn about the population’s condition and “those who moved in there out of the poverty and being at a loss will be satisfied with assistance from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Social Affairs of the Adjarian Autonomous Republic. There is a special program moving the people to Akhmeta and Tsalka, and there is the another possibility – they can get five thousand lari in financial aid.”

According to the chief of administration of the Adjara Ministry of Economics, Henry Sanikidze,: “These buildings were in the possession of the government and now they have become the possession of the Ministry of Defense.”

The population asked to buy the building during a visit to Natia Tsiklashvili, the minister of Finance and Economics of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. The minister gave them hope, but then it became clear that the so-called “Gvirabi” buildings would become the possession of the Ministry of Defense and not the property of the population.

According to the population, the representatives of the Ministry of Defense went to them and demanded them to remain silent on the matter: “Do not cause a stir, do not protest this decision and this government will help you. As we see they are going to move us from here and leave us without a shelter. We will not let this happen, even if we will be killed by people in masks, we will not agree to move to Tsalka or Akhmeta. People return from there, so why should we do go there?”

But a few days ago a construction company brought building materials there. The residents were told that they were going to repair the building. Therefore they automatically have to empty the buildings.

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi.