Freestyle Wrestling Club in Gori

Nachklang (Part 4)

Interview with Temuri Yakobashvili

Today, I had an hour private meeting/interview with Temuri Yakobashvili (თემურ იაკობაშვილი) at the State Chancellery. He currently serves as Georgia’s Minister for Reintegration (for Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and is Vice Prime Minister. He is thus a chief negotiator on the conflicts regarding Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

My main and obvious question to him was how realistic he would consider a resolution of the conflicts any time soon (or at all), given the recognition of these regions as independent by Russia, a continued presence of Russian troops in both regions and a de facto secession of both areas.

His answer was - as expected - thoughtful and cautiously optimistic. He considers the chances of a resolution of the conflicts better than ever before as he thinks that a paradigm shift had occurred. In the eighteen years before the Russian-Georgian war, the conflict around these regions has been an internal conflict, solely an intra-Georgian affair, largely ignored by the international community. With last year’s war, this issue has been elevated to the international stage and hence, in his view, an international conflict resolution perspective has been opened up. Firstly, Yakobashvili explained, no one questions now anymore that Russia is a party to the conflict and its potential resolution. Secondly, through the Geneva peace negotiation process, non-separatist forces within Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be heard as well, forces that have been quietened before. Thirdly, organisations such as the UN and OSCE which are active in Georgia and previously had a purely humanitarian mission, have now been upgraded to hold a political mandate as well. He stressed in particular that the EU monitoring mission has a useful role to play - as an independent arbiter when it comes to Russian allegations - as happened recently - of ostensible Georgian incursions into South Ossetian territory.

On my question on the security situation of the border regions, in particular around the South Ossetian border, he gave the honest answer that he does not think that the areas are safe at the moment. He is too aware of the issue of marauding South Ossetian gangs in these zones. He mentioned that only yesterday five civilians had been kidnapped close to the South Ossetian border (which bolsters the fears of the displaced family that I visited earlier this week, being afraid to go back to their native Mereti village). Yakobashvili promised that they will introduce the concept of secured borders and increased policing missions in these areas.

I found him pretty convincing in his answers and assessment of the situation; and also appreciated the interesting conversation we had besides politics on topics such as art and photography.

Clever PR or an art installation?

Yesterday, on the first anniversary of the war between Russia and Georgia, Rustaveli Avenue, the main artery through Tbilisi, was blocked off. A government-sponsored group, RE: action, installed various displays on the street, showcasing 226 years of the chequered history of the relations between Russia and Georgia. The open air exhibition opened with a display of documents detailing the Russian assistance for Georgia against a Muslim assault in 1783 and closed with images from the recent war.

It also included a mock Russian checkpoint and a simulated occupation of the Georgian Parliament by Russian forces. A somewhat original way to commemorate last year’s war…

Nachklang (Part 3)

Return to Gori

Yesterday, I was revisiting Gori, somehow this town “speaks” more to me than Tbilisi… the visit and in particular some encounters with its people was (again) very instructive…

What surprised me most at the outset when talking to people through my interpreter was the apprehension, almost fear of a new war with Russia that came through in some people’s remarks… Many people I spoke to expect some resumption of hostilities around the first anniversary of the beginning of the war this coming Friday…

So far it has been fairly quiet, apart from the - one has to say almost “usual” - posturing between Georgia and Russia and some minor skirmishes in South Ossetia…

Thinking about it, I should not have been surprised about these comments and fears… most of these people have been living with the results and the reality of war ever since it took place last year – displacement, no-go zones around Gori due to the inadequate security situation, even their apartments still show the scars of war…

Despite efforts by the government and especially some aid agencies to give some of the displaced people at least temporary housing, most of the families I had the opportunity to speak to, feel left alone, not given enough help by the government, and if given help, not enough or only inadequate relieve… One woman from Tskhinvali showed me stacks of macaroni and sacks full of beans in their crude and improvised dwelling – but nothing else, not even oil, onions, some vegetables or fruit – so what to cook if you have just macaroni and beans?




The government and some aid agencies (notably one from Germany) continue to build prefab houses for the families who still live in former kindergardens, former ministries or other makeshift buildings… most of the families expect to get one of the new houses by September… But one gets a barrage of words when inquiring about this outlook: they don’t want new houses, they want to go back to their native regions and villages… and many feel and realise with resignation that this will be next to impossible… some speak these words quietly, but with an equal sense of desperation…

A few of the families will not be given new houses, as they don’t qualify for this kind of resettlement. One family I spoke to came from the village of Mereti, a few kilometres from Tskhinvali (which is now firmly under South Ossetian/Russian control). De jure (which law?), Mereti is “proper” Georgian territory, so displaced families should be able to return to the village. However, de facto Mereti is controlled by marauding South Ossetian gangs which operate beyond the control of the Georgian police and which would make it hazardous for these families to return. For obvious political reasons, the Georgian government wants these families to return to their villages: it cannot accept a de-popularisation of these regions of ethnic Georgians. But would you want to return to this kind of environment and risk the life and health of your children?





Those displaced people and families that already have been given new houses – for example in a new settlement with umpteen exactly similar houses on the road from Tbilisi to Gori, now dubbed “New Gori” – are equally unhappy with the situation. They once more call for help from the government. Most of them had a farm, a few houses on it, vegetable and fruit gardens, arable land, chickens and cattle… now they have literally a few square meters of land with limited fertility around their makeshift dwellings. Are these people ungrateful for all the efforts of the government? Are they demanding the impossible? Are they caught up in the old socialist notions of that the state has to provide for you? Where is their own sense of can-do and initiative for self help?



Or is this kind of behaviour and these kind of demands understandable from people who have lost their roots, their sense of belonging, their hopes of ever going back, of ever having the same kind of stability and abundance in their lives?

Despite the (international) help that these Georgians receive, many feel abandoned by the international community, feel that they don’t receive enough assistance from the US and the EU in their struggle to reassert themselves towards Russia. If you ask what kind of help they expect beyond the substantial material and (maybe more limited) moral support, you draw a blank. Weapons? No, they don’t want weapons or a new war… But beyond that there are no answers…

Georgia remains in limbo…

Nachklang (Part 2)

Nachklang (Part 1)

I am now back in Georgia, and started working on a series which attempts the highlight the situation as it represents itself to me now, on the first anniversary of the war between Russia and Georgia.

When I have been visiting and reporting on the situation in Georgia a year ago - in August 2008 - when the war was at its height, I was focusing on the situation of internally displaced people (IDPs) during that time. In a sense I am still doing that this time (I have been revisiting two of the camps for IDPs today – but more of that in a later blog).

However, this time, I will be working on a series, which I will call “Nachklang” and will have to some extent a slightly different approach as the traditional photojournalistic approach. I am revisiting the places that I have been photographing a year ago; and through a series of decidedly allegorical and metaphorical composites I am trying to describe the current situation in Georgia: a country still marred by the repercussions and after-effects of the war, a country more than ever torn between denied access to the west and a territorial integrity in tatters, and its people being left with a broken democracy.

My concept is to create composites consisting of one image taken in August 2008 and one image taken now at the same location, not in order to create one “seamless” composite image but one that is clearly and visibly a combined image, the photographic equivalent of a Brecht epic theatre piece, a disturbance to the viewer.

I hope that the result will be a different take on a well covered subject but at the same time a meaningful contribution to the current discussion.