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- More hyperbole from Saakashvili
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Submitted by georgiamedia on Wed, 20/01/2010 - 15:29
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionMzechabuk "Chabua" Amirejibi is perhaps Georgia’s greatest living literary figure and undoubtedly the country’s leading, secular, moral authority. His decision to repeatedly speak out against Mikheil Saakashvili’s rule is a sign of president’s crumbling legitimacy in the Caucasus country.
Born in Tbilisi in 1921, Amirejibi’s most famous literary work is “Data Tutashkhia” filmed in the 1970s (see clip) and translated into English in the 1980s (though currently out of print), it tells the story of a noble outlaw – a common theme in Georgian literature – who evades the Tsarist police.
The novel and above all the film made Amirejibi a great national figure in his homeland but the remarkable thing was that it was ever published at all.
Amirejibi’s family were descended from aristocrats and were persecuted from the very beginnings of the Soviet power in Georgia. His father was executed in 1938 and his mother thrown into a Stalinist labour camp.
Amirejibi himself was dismissed from the Red Army and after activities in the anti-Communist underground was sent to prison for 15 years and was twice under sentence of death.
His novel was published in 1975 under the relatively liberal regime of Eduard Shevardnadze as Georgian Communist First Secretary, but Amirejibi was an enthusiastic supporter of Georgia’s independence.
But that independence has been bitter for him. He lost his son in Georgia’s civil wars and has seen his country fall under the increasingly authoritarian rule of Mikheil Saakashvili.
His latest appeal is addressed to all Georgians – inside and outside the country – in the hope they will add their voice to those calling for the president to resign to make way for early elections.
To all Georgians, please listen!
I hope this appeal will not been seen as a product of self-importance. But the current condition of the Georgian nation means we have no further use of warm words or best wishes. So this new year I refused to deliver the traditional celebratory address.
What is the state of our Georgian nation today?
Once before I wrote a short description, in 57 phrases, of the damage our government has done to us. I will not repeat that now. For there are new acts of supposed heroism that can be used to show the current situation.
Our Georgian village of Perevi was returned to our control thanks to the work of our nation's spiritual father, the Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II. Now it has been lost again because of the idle bragging of Saakashvili.
We still have not seen a proper military assessment of the actions taken by the government, supposedly to protect the Georgian population living in the region of Tskhinvali. But it is clear it protected no Georgians and led to the occupation of our national territory by what is again the Russian Empire. That Empire dreams again of breaking through the Caucasus to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
One more stupidity that is especially worth mentioning is the demolition of the memorial to the three hundred and fifty thousand Georgians who died in the Second World War in order to build a parliament building. This unprecedented immorality is the continuation of the policy that led to the banishment from Tbilisi of the statue of King David the Builder by same sculptor, Merab Berdzenishvili. What has the sculptor of these prominent statutes done wrong besides the fact that he did not put a statue of Saakashvili next to the city's founder King Vakhtang Gorgasali?
This government has not finished with us yet. Who knows what is next? We face the risk of elimination from the Earth.
I would like apologize for repeating myself, but we are dammed to eternal suffering for having as a homeland this miraculous crossroads called Georgia. Because of this we have suffered many defeats and tragedies, but we have survived thanks to our resistance, healthy approach and willingness to find a path to survival. I am sure we will find the way out from today's extreme difficulties as well: if we set our intelligence against the evil.
And how should we do this?
We must unite and pusue a common aim. All our efforts must be towards the sacred goal: to save and reunify our country. We cannot hope for fair elections when the ruling horde seeks to guarantee its perpetual victory through the police, the armed forces and mercenary bureaucrats.
Patriots of our country have already gathered to call for the leaving aside of personal ambition and for unity around the organisation of a great national representative assembly. I join them in that call.
Those of you who are honest and are not stupid should join us too. Meet and discuss this one solution and Georgia will again triumph.
Georgians, show your wit and save Georgia.
Chabua Amirejibi,
Tbilisi
Tbilisi
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[...] in Georgia" but not all the twentieth century's literary giants have passed away and one - Chabua Amirejibi - has lobbed a epistolary grenade straight at the president and his party by endorsing Irakli [...]
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