While the Russian concept of “soft force” is being developed in Moscow under the supervision of Rossotrrudnichestvo, Tbilisi is already implementing its own. The Fund of the Caucasus, which has been working in Georgia for several years, organizes sea vacations for children from the North Caucasus and introduces them to Georgian culture and the achievements of the country after the “rose revolution.” This August, the Fund of Caucasus, together with the Moscow Fund of Aid to Previously-Deported Nations, sent children from Chechnya and Ingushetia to Kobuleti. VK's reporter in Nazran, Pavel Tseroyev, confirms that the children enjoyed their time in Georgia.
The road to Kobuleti was not that short. They spent a lot of time at the Lars-Kazbegi border checkpoint. The vehicles queued for several kilometers. The one-sided abolishment of visas to Geogia for all Russian citizens put an extra load on all the terminals.They were definitely not prepared for such a number of people – no shops, no coffee-places, no toilets, no water. After crossing the border most Russian tourists stopped around Kazbegi, while the children from Chechnya and Ingushetia were brought further south-west by the modern highway without checkpoints or traffic police, that had been replaced by video-cameras. In a Kobuleti hotel they lived together with children from Armenia, from the Yerevan Children's Symphony Orchestra. The city was full of tourists from Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The North Caucasian children were taken to the “Georgian Las-Vegas”, were shown an American movie in a luxurious cinema and then a performance in Batumi aquarium that has now been revived after the hard times. It opened in 1975 and was the first of its kind in the USSR. It worked for 20 years. The old building was demolished and the new one completed in 2009. The show is in three languages – Georgian, English and Russian. The dolphins were initially brought from Japan, but the new generation was already born in Batumi.
The Ingush and Chechen children were very impressed by the old part of the city with Armenian and Greek churches, a synagogue and the mosque. Batumi's Orta-Jame mosque was built in the 1880s. The children from the North Caucasus had their Namaz there and talked to local believers. Right before that the mosque had been visited by Chechen pilgrims on their Hajj. Most of the population of Ajaria are Orthodox Christian, but some in the mountains are Muslims. Another attraction of Batumi is “Batumi piazza” made in the Italian style. At noon the bells toll and a couple in national Georgian dresses arrive at the square.There are a lot of small cafés and live music.
In Kubuleti the residents complained that there are very few tourists from Russia, while in Batumi there are more and more of them. The tourism department in Ajaria prepares guides with fluent Russian, and one of them, Yuri Babayan, accompanied the north Caucasian group. Georgia seems to realize the importance of Russian language and probably will soon add some Russian street signs to Georgian and English. At the moment young people in Georgia have very limited knowledge of Russian, which hinders their communication with tourists from the former USSR, China and Vietnam.
Pavel Tseroyev, Nazran, exclusively for VK
