Djaba Iosseliani

Jaba Ioseliani ( Georgia ჯაბა იოსელიანი ; Russian Джаба Константинович Иоселиани / dzaba Konstantinowitsch Iosseliani * 10. July 1926 in Khashuri , Georgian SSR ; † 4. March 2003 in Tbilisi ) was a Georgian criminal , writer and warlord . In 1991 he organized a coup against Georgia's first President Zviad Gamsachurdia and was head of state from January to March 1992.

Life

Iosseliani studied Oriental Studies at the Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg ), but did not graduate. In 1948 he was convicted of bank robbery in Leningrad and spent 17 years in prison . He was released in 1965, but later returned to prison for manslaughter . Overall, he spent more than 20 years in prison , where he developed into a leader of the Soviet criminal caste wory w sakone ( Eng . Thieves in law ).

After his release, he returned to Georgia and graduated from the Georgian Stage Arts Institute . He became a professor there and wrote a number of popular plays.

In 1989 he became the leader of the 8,000-strong paramilitary unit Sakartwelos Mchedrioni (German: Georgian horsemen ). In the early 1990s, under the guise of fighting against separatist tendencies, the Mchedrioni tried to gain control of large areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia . In February 1991, President Swiad Gamsakhurdia declared his organization illegal. Iosseliani was arrested with other members of the Mchedrioni . In return, he accused the President of wanting to gain control over the state media and silencing political opponents.

In December 1991, Iosseliani broke out of prison and joined forces with rebellious members of the Georgian National Guard who led a coup against the first president of independent Georgia. In 1992 he took over the Georgian government as head of the military council together with Tengis Kitowani . Iosseliani quickly succeeded in gaining monopoly over the Georgian fuel supply. For political stabilization, he brought the former Communist Party leader and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze into the first state office.

In the mid-1990s he was considered the second most important man in Georgia after Shevardnadze. In 1995 Shevardnadze ordered the dissolution of the Mchedrioni and accused the paramilitaries of extensive criminal involvement. In the same year Iosseliani was arrested for alleged involvement in a bomb attack against Shevardnadze. In 1998 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In the spring of 2000 Iosseliani was pardoned by President Shevardnadze. Attempts to reorganize the Mchedrioni as a political party under the name Union of Patriots failed. Shortly before his death, he announced his candidacy for the Georgian parliamentary elections in November 2003. On February 26, 2003, he suffered a heart attack and died a week later in a Tbilisi hospital.

Iosseliani appeared in front of the television cameras in both combat suit and formal clothing. Sometimes he publicly wore a white suit with a white bow tie and a white top hat.

literature

• Obituaries; Dzhaba Ioseliani, 76: Often-Imprisoned Leader of Georgian Paramilitary Force . In: Los Angeles Times , Mar 5, 2003.
• Obituary: Jaba Ioseliani: Violent warlord in post-Communist Georgia . In: The Independent , Mar 25, 2003.

Web links

• Biography Dschaba Iosselianis (en)
• Obituary Dschaba Iosseliani (en)