Georgi Khucishvili died

Georgi Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK


Recently, in Tbilisi, the famous political scientist, one of the initiators of the "Istanbul process" on a direct dialogue between the Georgian and Russian experts, Georgi Khucishvili died suddenly.


In the morning, Georgi arrived at the Tbilisi State University (TSU) to take part in a meeting of the tender commission on academic positions. Khucishvili was a member of the commission. Within a few minutes after the beginning of the meeting, he felt bad. The ambulance arrived almost instantly, but the analyst could not be saved, he died in the boardroom of a heart attack.

Georgi Khucishvili is a Doctor of Philosophy; in 1995-2006, he was a professor at the Tbilisi State University and Tbilisi Institute of Foreign Languages , a professor at Stanford University. In 1994 he was appointed director of the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation. He was the coordinator of "The Global Network for the Prevention of Armed Conflict" for the Caucasus region.

Heading the "International Center on Conflict and Negotiation", Georgi Khucishvili, after the five-day war in 2008, initiated a meeting with Russian experts to discuss the most controversial issues in Russian-Georgian relations. Soon after that, the meetings of political scientists of the two countries found the format of "Istanbul Forum", which became a platform for ongoing dialogue.

Officially, the forum was called "Istanbul Process: expert dialogue between Russia and Georgia." Totally, six meetings have been held: five in Istanbul and one in the United States. In an interview with VK, Georgi Khucishvili said that his goal was "to intensify the dialogue at the non-governmental level to make recommendations, to stop the confrontation between the two countries to solve the problems that divide us and even to move forward in the relationship".

In addition to discussing a range of issues - from politics to the economy - the experts of the two countries jointly published the non-fiction book " Russia and Georgia - a way out of the crisis", which became the first collection of articles by Russian and Georgian authors.

In addition, the authors made a study "The perception of Russia and the Russians in the Georgian society". It was the Georgian part of the study. In the Russian part, it was called, respectively, "The perception of Georgia and the Georgians in the Russian society".

Soon the Istanbul meetings became the system of consultations with the participation of the most frequently cited, sought-after and respected experts of the two countries. The participants of the forum not only gathered information but also analyzed the problem and looked for ways to overcome them .

After the parliamentary elections on October 1, when there has been a thaw in bilateral relations, the participants of the "Istanbul Forum" supported "the Geneva process" and other official formats of the Russian- Georgian dialogue. Russian and Georgian experts, with the assistance of Georgi Khucishvili, have made a significant contribution to the success of the Russian-Georgian school of journalism in Tbilisi.

Georgi Khucishvili always advocated dialogue and exchange of views, rightly thinking that the expert community can make a significant contribution to the beginning of an important political process to discuss the inter-state differences at the official level. The "Istanbul Forum" has indeed become one of the prerequisites of the "Prague Process " - direct talks between the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Abashidze and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin.

Unfortunately, Georgi Khucishvili did not have time to carry out much of his plans, having left in the prime of life, when his initiatives and undertakings in the Russian-Georgian expert dialogue have only begun to bear fruit.