Swiad Gamsachurdia

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Swiad Gamsachurdia (1988)

Swiad Gamsachurdia ( Georgian ზვიად გამსახურდია ; born March 31, 1939 in Tbilisi , †  December 31, 1993 in West Georgia) was a Georgian writer, dissident and politician . From May 1991 to January 1992 he was the first President of Georgia . After a military coup , he was killed in unknown circumstances in West Georgia.

Life

Youth and Studies

He was born the son of the Georgian writer Konstantine Gamsachurdia . In 1956, while still at school, he was arrested for nationalist and anti-communist activities. After graduating from high school, he studied English language and literature from 1957 to 1962.

Due to his early interest in Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy , he later tried, as President, to shape the development of Georgia not only economically but at the same time under new anthroposophical and esoteric points of view.

dissident

In 1973 he was co-founder of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in Georgia, in 1976 co-founder and chairman of the Georgian Helsinki Group . He wrote for oppositional samizdat magazines such as the Chronika tekuschtschich Sobytij ( German Chronicle of Current Events ) and Okros Satsmisi (German: Golden Fleece ) published by Sergei Kowaljow .  

In 1977 Gamsachurdia fell victim to a wave of arrests against Soviet members of the Helsinki movement. He was sentenced to three years in a GULAG labor camp and three years in exile for anti-Soviet activities , but got away with two years of exile in a mountain village in the northern Caucasus after self-criticizing on Soviet television and signing a testimony against two Western journalists. They had claimed that the self-criticism was a forgery by the KGB . In 1978 the US Congress proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize .

Gamsachurdia stopped his political activity until the beginning of perestroika in the Soviet Union and dealt with Rudolf Steiner's philosophy. Together with Merab Kostawa , he led the protest movement at the end of the 1980s.

Opposition

In 1989 he founded the Round Table / Free Georgia party (Georgian მრგვალი მაგიდა / mrgwali magida / თავისუფალი საქართველო / tavisupali sakartvelo ). Gamsachurdia tried to leave the Soviet Union as quickly as possible and to achieve complete independence for Georgia. It was very popular with the population.

Gamsachurdia opposed the ethnic division of the country. After South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in November 1989, he organized a march to the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali , in which around 10,000 of his supporters took part. The Russian historian Sergei Markedonov accused him of describing the Ossetians as "uneducated" and "wild" in a speech and asking them to either become Georgians or go to Russia.

He is said to have expressed himself similarly to other minorities such as Abkhazians , Armenians , Russians , Azerbaijani and Avars . After interethnic tensions between Avars and Georgians, Gamsakhur supporters sieged an Avar village in Lagodechi Rajon in June 1990 , which resulted in the Avar villagers fleeing to Russia. Gamsakhurdia had previously publicly sympathized with the expulsion of the Avars from "Georgian soil" at a demonstration. According to historian George Khutsishvili, Gamsachurdia's anti-minority rhetoric was instrumental in turning Georgia's inter-ethnic conflicts into brutal violence and open civil war.

Gamsachurdia's party received 87% of the vote in the 1990 elections and formed the majority in the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR . During the first parliamentary session, Gamsakhurdia was unanimously elected chairman, making it head of state of Georgia. The first official acts of his new government included the abolition of the autonomy rights of South Ossetia and the proclamation of the state independence of Georgia.

president

In 1991 the Supreme Soviet elected him President of Georgia, which was confirmed by national elections on May 26, 1991. Domestically, his policy became increasingly volatile and authoritarian; in terms of foreign policy, he went on a confrontational course with Russia . He was given dictatorial powers and opposition leaders were arrested. Gamsakhurdia cracked down on national minorities like Abkhazians and Ossetians and challenged their right to live in Georgia. Nationalists and reformists joined forces in an anti-Gamsakhurdia coalition.

On December 22, 1991, parts of the National Guard and paramilitary groups under Tengis Kitowani and Jaba Iosseliani began a coup against Gamsakhurdia. On January 6, 1992, the putschists triumphed after hard fighting with the Presidential Guard in downtown Tbilisi. According to official estimates, between 100 and 1,000 people were killed, according to unofficial estimates, the figure was around 2,000. Gamsakhurdia fled with around 200 armed supporters and his family first to Armenia , then to Sukhumi and finally to Grozny in Chechnya .

Civil war fighters

On September 24, 1993 he returned to Georgia and established a government in exile in Zugdidi . His armed supporters were able to take control of large parts of western Georgia, including the port city of Poti and the Samtredia railway junction , in October . With the help of Russian troops and weapons as well as the paramilitary unit Sakartwelos Mchedrioni , the government under Eduard Shevardnadze succeeded in suppressing the uprising in November.

Gamsakhurdia died on December 31, 1993. To this day it is unclear where he died and whether the death was brought about by his own or someone else's hand. Presumably he died in the house of a follower in the village of Chibula in the western Georgian region of Mingrelia and was later buried in the village of Jichashkari. The Georgian government did not announce his death until January 5, 1994.

He was exhumed on February 15 and, at the request of his family , transferred to Grozny in Chechnya , where he was reburied on February 24, 1994. Chechen President Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov had Gamsakhurdia's body taken to Rostov-on-Don for a forensic examination on March 3, 2007 . After identification by Russian doctors, he was transferred to Georgia and buried on April 1 in the Tbilisi Pantheon on Mtatsminda.

Cause of death

The government of Gamsakhurdia's successor, Eduard Shevardnadze , promoted the version of political murder by its own followers. Gamsachurdia's widow initially spoke to the Russian news agency Interfax about a suicide . Her husband perpetrated it after his refuge was surrounded by paramilitaries of the Sakartwelos Mchedrioni . In March 2007, however, she spoke of a contract killing .

On February 26, 2004, President Mikheil Saakashvili set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the events surrounding the overthrow and death of Gamsachurdias. It included the Chairman of the National Security Council, the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Security of Georgia. Three years later, the Commission had not yet presented any results.

Private

Gamsachurdia spoke several languages ​​including Russian , German , English and French . Among other things, he stayed twice in the GDR in 1969 at the invitation of Gertrud Pätsch .

Gamsakhurdia was married twice. Son Konstantine (born June 24, 1961) comes from his first marriage . In his second marriage he married Manana Artschwadse. The sons Zotne and Giorgi are from the marriage.

Part of the family has lived in Georgia again since 1996. The younger son Giorgi worked in the city administration of Batumi . The son from the first marriage, Konstantine, lived in Switzerland from 1992 to 2006 , where he was granted political asylum. He returned to Georgia in February 2006 and has been head of the Freedom Movement Party full-time ever since.

Political aftermath

Even after his death, his name moved Georgian politics. Before the Georgian Rose Revolution in November 2003, the then opposition leader traveled Mikheil Saakashvili to West Georgia, campaigned in the regions of Samegrelo and Imereti among fans Gamsakhurdia. He recalled the quote from the first president "We will throw roses instead of bullets at our enemies" and convinced around 30,000 people to take part in demonstrations in Tbilisi.

After the fall of Shevardnadze, Gamsachurdia's son Konstantine took over the chairmanship of the Georgian Freedom Movement Party (Georgian Tawisupleba ), commuting between his residence in Basel and his party in Tbilisi.

Awards

Georgia's government, parliament and the Georgian Orthodox Apostle Church honored Gamsakhurdia on the occasion of his burial in the Tbilisi Pantheon on March 30, 2007 with a service under the direction of Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta , at which the Georgian President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament attended. In May 2002, the west Georgian city of Zugdidi honored him with a bronze monument.

Fonts

  • Amerikuli poeziis antologia . Ganatleba, Tbilisi 1971
  • XX saukunis amerikuli poezia . Ganatleba, Tbilisi 1972
  • Literaturuli cerilebi . Merani, Tbilisi 1976
  • Vepxistqaosani inglisur enaze . Mecniereba, Tbilisi 1984
  • Igavebi da zgaprebi . Nakaduli, Tbilisi 1987
  • Mtvaris nizhnoba (leksebi) . Merani, Tbilisi 1989
  • The spiritual mission of Georgia . Ganatleba, Tbilisi 1991, ISBN 5-505-01424-0
  • Vepxistqaosnis saxismetqveleba . Mecniereba, Tbilisi 1991, ISBN 5-520-01153-2
  • Cerilebi. esseebi . Xelovneba, Tbilisi 1991
  • Overview of the relations between Russia and Georgia before and after 1917 . in: J. Gerber: National Dissent in Georgia 1956 to 1991 . Freiburg i. Br., Diss. 1995, pp. 313-316 (= Doc. 4)
  • Chelovechestvo pered dilemmoi . Aktrisa Margarita, Moskva, 1994

literature

  • Konstantin Gamsachurdia: Swiad Gamsachurdia, dissident - president - martyr . Perseus-Verlag, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-907564-19-7
  • Jürgen Gerber: Georgia: National opposition and communist rule since 1956 . Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1997, ISBN 3-7890-4763-5
  • Manana Arcvacze-Gamsakhurdia: Zviad Gamsaxurdia (avtorizebuli) biograpia bibliograpiit . Tbilisi 1999
  • Janice Bohle: Gamsakhurdia a product of the Soviet Union . o. O. 1997
  • Conflict in Georgia: human rights violations by the government of Zviad Gamsakhurdia . Helsinki Watch, New York 1991
  • Ghia Nodia: Political Turmoil in Georgia an the Ethnic Policies of Zviad Gamsakhurdia . In: Bruno Coppieters (Ed.): Contested Borders in the Caucasus . VUB Univ. Press, Brussels 1996, ISBN 90-5487-117-2
  • Prezident Zviad Gamsaxurdias sak̕me = President Zviad Gamsakhurdia's case [Results of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry] Tbilisi 2013. ISBN 978-9941-445-43-9

Web links

Commons : Zviad Gamsakhurdia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aschot Manutscharjan: The domestic political development of Georgia from 1991 to 1996 with special consideration of the secession conflicts. In: Erich Reiter (Ed.): The Secession Conflicts in Georgia. (Series of publications on international politics, Volume 1) Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2009, p. 72, ISBN 978-3-205-78325-1 .
  2. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: here the page title of the dead link )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / topics.blogs.nytimes.com
  3. ↑ Геноцид в Южной Осетии. Хроника событий. Article dated November 9, 2006 on the ria.ru website (in Russian). Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  4. ↑ ЗЕМЛЯ И ВОЛЯ ЗВИАДА ГАМСАХУРДИА Archived article from April 4, 2007 (in Russian).
  5. ↑ Кварельские аварцы: вчера, сегодня, завтра (цикл "Национальные меньшинства Закавказья") Article from April 19, 2007 on the website in Russian .ru. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  6. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: here the page title of the dead link )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bu.edu
  7. ↑ Anita Inder Singh: Democracy, Ethnic Diversity, and Security in Post-communist Europe. Praeger Publishers, Westport (CT) 2001, p. 59, ISBN 0-275-97258-5 ( on Google Books )
  8. ↑ Rustavi 2: Burial of Zviad Gamsakhurdia ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Звиад Гамсахурдиа - Aвтобиография. Iberiana (autobiography, in Russian).
  10. ↑ Irakli Z. Kakabadze: Inside the Revolution of the Roses. ( Memento of November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 155 kB) Occasional Paper Number 15, The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, 2005.
  11. ↑ Rustavi 2: Burial of Zviad Gamsakhurdia ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Gamsachurdia, Swiad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES ზვიად გამსახურდია (Georgian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Georgian writer, dissident and politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Tbilisi
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1993
PLACE OF DEATH West Georgia