Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
A legendary field commander of the Georgian-Abkhazian War of 1992-1993, a permanent leader of the armed group of Kodori Svans ‘Hunter’, Emzar Kvitsiani, has returned to Georgia. As Kvitsiani arrived in Tbilisi, he was arrested at the airport in front of hundreds of supporters who came to welcome him, as well as numerous relatives. Nobody resisted the police: the arrest was unexpected. Moreover, the Interior Ministry’s Press Secretary, Nino Giorgobiani, warned beforehand that when Kvitsiani crosses the border, he would be arrested, as the previous authorities of the country had initiated a criminal case against him, accusing him of rioting and an anti-State plot.
Kvitsiani is the last of the Mohicans of the civil war which started in 1991, after the declaration of independence, and turned into the Georgian-Abkhazian War. By September 1993 Abkhazian armed groups had established control over the whole territory of Abkhazia, except for the Kodori Gorge where the Svans lived. The Svans participated in the war on the Georgian side, while Emzar Kvitsiani was thought to be the most powerful field commander. The Abkhazian troops didn’t attack the gorge for two reasons.
First of all, Moscow had never been happy about appearance of a direct road which would have connected Abkhazia with the Circassian world of the North Caucasus through the Kodori Gorge.
Secondly, Kvintsiani and Svan elders demonstrated high diplomatic skills: they had managed to persuade the Abkhazians that no threat would have come from the Kodori Gorge, i.e. the Svans would have not let Georgian troops into the gorge.
However, when Mikhail Saakashvili’s team came to power, the agreement was broken: in summer 2006 several thousand Georgian soldiers headed by the Minister of Defense Irakly Okruashvili and the Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili intruded into the gorge (i.e. Abkhazian territory), while the Svans didn’t resist seriously, as many of them had relatives in Georgia and they couldn’t survive withou aid from “the big land.”
Fearing arrest, Emzar Kvitsiani escaped to Russia through the Marukh Pass. He couldn’t run to Abkhazia, as the Kvitsiani were fighting the Abkhazians. Moreover, his name was often mentioned in the tragic history of the deaths of dozens of peaceful residents, including children, during the war.
When Kvitsiani came to Russia, he made several statements against Saakashvili’s regime, accusing him of “preparation for surrendering the Kodori Gorge to the Abkhazians.” Meanwhile, in Georgia the former field commander was accused of rioting and an anti-State plot. Kvitsiani could be life-sentenced. As it was impossible to extradite him from Russia, his sister Nora Kvitsiani was imprisoned, ridiculously accused of possessing weapon. Weapons were in all Svan houses of the Kodori Gorge. It was a normal household item for the population.
Emzar Kvitsiani appeared to be a visionary in one main thing: in August 2008 the Abkhaz authorities not only gathered troops over the Kodori Gorge and displaced the Georgian army from there, but also hunted away the Svans, the majority of whom live in Tbilisi at the moment. That is why Kvitsiani is counting on the generosity and mercy of the Georgian authorities, as they are interested in the return of another witness of Saakashvili’s mistakes.
