After the collapse of the USSR, Abkhazia survived two wars-in 1993 and 1998. Since then, except for the Kodor gorge, life here flowed relatively peacefully. However, the recognition of the independence of the republic again reminded of another pain point - the Galsky district where the megrels live, carriers common to the Georgians of culture. The New Times correspondent drove around the Galsky district and found out that not everyone wants to live in independent Abkhazia here
Galsky district, although it is part of Abkhazia, is considered a zone of special control. On the border - border guards and post of Russian peacekeepers. The main (if not the only) centers of public life - school.
At the school, Verkhny Bargebi sat 161 students. Teaching is in Georgian. The school does not actually have a roof, it was destroyed during the years of the first war of the 92–93th. At the expense of the UN refugee committee, about a third of the roof managed to restore, as well as build a sports ground and buy the most necessary for study. Some of the children still understand in Russian, but the majority know only Georgian and Megrelsky. At the same time, deputy director of the Bezhan school, at the same time, assures that the situation is gradually starting to improve. By “gradually” he means the last four years. 1
The main problem of Kulia considers the lack of understandable and open boundaries with Georgia. It is the uncertainty with the border, according to him, that prevents further improvement in the situation in the region. Locals constantly go to the Georgian Zugdidi for goods that cannot be reached in the Galsky district or they are too expensive here. Most have relatives on the territory of Georgia, someone has children there. Having received secondary education, young people go to study or work there, and only with rare exceptions to Russia. A few units are returning home. Six months ago, crossing the border was commonplace. Now it is officially closed, although this does not mean that you can’t get through: if there is no special pass, you can pay the border guard 500 rubles. But by the standards of the district, this is a lot of money.
"Our state"
At least a dozen international humanitarian organizations operate in the Galsky district. Among them are the UN observers, and the Danish and Swedish committees on refugee cases, and the Red Cross, and the OSCE. Beads of Koryria believes that their presence is necessary: “The more observers, the better it will be. Russian recognition does not mean international recognition - this is only a guarantee of security. We strive for recognition and should be open to show how we build our state. ” It is “our state”: most of the inhabitants of Upper Bargebi are supporters of independent Abkhazia, and not Abkhazia as a subject in Russia.
The director of the school in Nizhny Bargebi (this is 5–7 kilometers towards the Georgian border from the upper Tsitsino) Litsuzbali does not consider the recognition of independence to any important thing: “I don’t know what is happening, but we will somehow live. The main thing is that there is peace and we can calmly teach children. ”
- And how do you feel about the department from Georgia?
- It will be there - we will be there, here will be - here we will. Of course, we want to live a single Georgia. But we will live with Russia.
Irma Eliava, a teacher of the Russian language wedges into the conversation: “There are relatives, there are relatives, we are a single country. We, Megrels, want to live with Georgia, we do not want independent Abkhazia. ” Irma graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Zugdidi. Its monthly salary is 1400 rubles.
Peaceful but drunk
While the New Times correspondent goes further towards the border, the old Volga stalls.
“We must go to Zugdidi for spare parts, and the border will be closed again now,” the Drive driver complains.
- Why exactly in Zugdidi?
- There is closer and there is cheaper than in Sukhumi.
The border village of Pichora smoothly goes into the already Georgian village of Ganmukhuri. There are very few students in a local school. All of them speak Georgian, and from other languages they learn only German. History is taught by Georgian textbooks. The Abkhazian authorities are unhappy with this situation, but they have not yet dared to prohibit teaching on Georgian - this would cause too much discontent in the local population. Georgia, who is interested in maintaining its positions in the region and hoping to return to the Galsky district, is more likely not a whip, but the gingerbread, helping textbooks and paying to teachers who teach in Georgian.
The elementary school teacher complains that only 5 out of 12 students go to her, and sometimes less: parents are afraid and do not let their children go to school. They are afraid of Russian peacekeepers, whose post is located opposite the school. An armored personnel carrier or military “Ural” passes in front of the school every five minutes.
The deputy director of the school, teaching Georgian and mathematics, complains that last year there was no such thing and all 113 students went to school. The peacekeepers began to be afraid this year: “On TV (Georgian. - The New Times) handed out that they were not peacekeepers, but simply military, and they are aggressors. Children see everything on TV. " Only Georgian television channels and Georgian radio stations work in the pichoras. To the question: how justified the fear of the peacekeepers is - the teacher admits that the military did not do anything bad, but adds that there is nothing good from them: they walk forever drunk, and the day before, one fighter even fell from the armored personnel carrier. The ensign met by the New Times correspondent, the warrant officer really did not look like the fighters, he brought food and ammunition at the Urals under the convoy. The closer to the Georgian border, the stronger the locals want to live in a single Georgia, and not in independent Abkhazia. Locals who have established in the “lower zone” call the situation “the occupation of the Georgian in culture and spirit of the earth by Abkhazia with the support of Russia”. 2
Hydroelectric power station in the world
In the north of the district, right on the border, there is a hydroelectric power station supplying electricity to Georgia and Abkhazia. Half of the employees - Georgians, the remote control and the equipment of the station - on Georgian. Almost everyone has special travels across the border. Station employees prefer to buy products in Georgia - it is cheaper there. Cellular The connection is also only Georgian operators. Now the station operates with a capacity of 300 megavatts per hour, the maximum is about 1300 megavatts. A third of the generated energy goes to Abkhazia, the rest to Georgia. The head of the hydraulic engineering workshop Shalva Boguchava has been working at the hydroelectric power station since 1964, according to him, the Georgian government pays a good salary by local standards - $ 500 workers and $ 800–1000 to engineers. Georgia helps with infrastructure, and a kindergarten was restored in the village adjacent to the station. Tbilisi does not want to invest money only in school, setting the condition for teaching in Georgian. The Georgian government pays for the overhaul of the station that Siemens conducts. Due to the aggravation of the situation, all Siemens employees left in early August, and when they return, no one knows.
Hydroelectric power station is an object for Georgian-Abkhaz relations strategic. The hydroelectric power station building is located on the territory of Abkhazia, and the dam is already on Georgian land, from here water comes. If you get from hydroelectric power stations to the dam on the road, then this is 30 kilometers of the journey. Now 700 people work at the station, the staff will be artificially departed to somehow solve the problem with unemployment. Hydroelectric power station is what makes Georgian and Abkhazian authorities not only communicate with each other, but also agree. This, Shalva Boguchava hopes, will teach politicians to find compromises on other issues.
Authoritative peacemaker
One of those whom they really hope is the special representative of the President of Abkhazia in the area of Ruslan Kishmaria, respected by local residents. He earned respect by openness (everyone can get to it, and everyone can get to it) and the fact that, being Abkhaz, protects the interests of the Megrelian population. At the same time, Ruslan Kishmaria controls, as they say, the entire gray turnover with Georgia. His interests in normalizing relations with Georgia are purely economic. As the merchants in Gali explain, Kishmaria, of course, receives his share from the illegal business, but unlike his predecessors, he does not engage in a racket. Moreover, the profit is not so great, the area is purely agricultural.
After Mikhail Saakashvili came to power from the district, partisan detachments “White Legion” and “Forest Brothers” were revoked. However, the State Security Service of Abkhazia states that Georgian saboteurs operate along the border. True, this could not be heard evidence. Most of the murders and incidents in the district are criminal, not political. For example, the murder several years ago the most famous criminal authority (as they say here), and part -time the head of the Galian police of Otar Turnnba, as well as the head of the local department of the State Security Service of Dzhansukha Murati, according to rumors, on the account of Georgian criminals. But politics has nothing to do with it: the business was not divided.
The Galsky district of Abkhazia is mainly inhabited by megrels - a nationality close to Georgians. Many were forced to escape from here, as from other regions of Abkhazia, as a result of civil wars and ethnic purges in 1993-1994 and in 1998. According to various sources, from 40 to 60 thousand refugees returned to Gali and adjacent villages after the 1998 war. According to the official census of 2003, 29,287 people live in the Galsky district. However, international observers question official figures and claim that in 2006 at least 45 thousand people lived in the region.
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1 Abkhaz authorities returned to the Galsky district only four years ago. Prior to this, the territory was actually not controlled by the abkhazians.
2 “Lower Zone” here is called the border territory along the Inguri River, which, in fact, shares Abkhazia with Georgia.
