Georgian civic activist living in Russian-occupied Akhalgori: ‘it’s no Wuhan, its Akhalgori’
Akhalgori became under the Russian control after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war. Photo: Tamar Mearakishvili.
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Georgian civic activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who lives in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Akhalgori district, has released the photos of Akhalgori, with no people walking on the streets and lights rarely coming from windows.
Mearakishvili, who is politically persecuted by de facto authorities of Tskhinvali, says that many people have left the district since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war, when Russia expanded its control on Akhalgori.
It is not Wuhan [a Chinese city, the epicenter of the outbreak of the new coronavirus], these are empty streets of Akhalgori,” Mearakishvili wrote on her Facebook page.
Starting from early September 2019 crossing points between Akhalgori and the rest of Georgia have been closed by de facto authorities, creating severe humanitarian situation on the ground.
Mearakishvili wrote last month that around ten people have died in the district due to delayed medical aid.
Locals, who buy vital everyday items in the rest of Georgia, have been deprived of their fundamental right of moving freely.
The reason for the closure was the opening of a police post on the Tbilisi-administered territory, in the village of Chorchana, by the central Georgian government at the end of the summer of 2019.
The de facto leadership says that the police post ‘is too close to our country and poses security threats to our population.’
They say that the crossing points will reopen after the police post is dismantled which Tbilisi refuses to do.
After the five-month closure the de facto authorities opened the crossing points only for pensioners at the end of January 2020, stating that pensioners will be allowed to receive their pensions on the Tbilisi-controlled territory once in two months.
Tamar Gigauri, 60, who received heavy injuries after falling into a well of seven meters deep in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Akhalgori district in early November of 2019 has only today been allowed to leave the district to receive necessary treatment on the Tbilisi-administered territory.
Civic activist Tamar Mearakishvili, who lives in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Akhalgori district, says that up to 10 people in the area have died due to delayed medical aid or other reasons related to the illegal closure of crossing points between breakaway Tskhinvali and the rest of Georgia 131 days ago.
The armed forces of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region have been put in combat mode for “educational purposes,” Sputnik Ossetia reports. The agency says that it is the decision of the so-called Ministry of Defence of the region.
A mother living in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Akhalgori district was not allowed to leave the territory for several days to mourn her son who died in the Tserovani settlement, on Tbilisi-administered territory. The story caused public turmoil on social media, with the mother permitted to leave Akhalgori only late yesterday [while the young man died on September 22], Radio Liberty reports.
The Russian-controlled de facto leadership of Tskhinvali has closed the Razdakhani crossing point for Akhalgori population, which was opened for pensioners only on January 24, 2020, after almost a five-month illegal closure.Local civic activists say that a small portion of those who were allowed to leave the Russian-occupied district decided to stay on the Tbilisi-administered territory either for treatment or to spend the winter with relatives.
EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar says that important discussions have been held with the involvement of the UN and OSCE regarding the current security situation at the occupation lines in Georgia. Crossing points between Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region and the rest of Georgia have been closed for more than six month, since September 4, 2019.
Local media reports that there is not enough food in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Tskhinvali region, with dairy products and children’s food in particular deficit. Media outlet Rec reports that food has not entered from Russia into the region for more than a week due to certain, technicnical problems and the local ‘de facto authorities are holding talks to resolve the problem.’
Residents of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Akhalgori district are prohibited not only from moving to the central government-controlled territory and receiving quality medical services there, but also from receiving scheduled services at the Akhalgori local hospital, reports Democracy Research Institute NGO (DRI).
US citizen Jackson Poll Cramer, who was illegally detained by the Russian-controlled occupation forces in the Java district of Tskhinvali region on August 26, was released yesterday. Cramer, who was visiting Georgia as a tourist, accidentally crossed into the occupied territory and was taken to Tskhinvali prison for ‘illegally crossing the border.’ The de facto authorities have tried to use him for propaganda and took him to Tskhinvali museum and a cemetery ‘where the victims of Georgian aggression are buried.’