The other thing that is interesting is how everyone uses the same information and completely twists it to fit their side of the story. Abkhazia and Abkhazians could be anything from Georgian citizens in occupied territory, independent citizens in their own territory, Russian citizens in de facto territory. It's crazy. Another example:
Fact: Abkhaz people are crossing the ABL (administrative border line) to seek medical treatment in Georgia.
Georgian Govt: Obviously our policies are working and the Abkhaz want to come back to Georgia
Abkhazia: Because their is an embargo against us and our borders are closed, we do not have adequate medical services. We are forced to travel dangerously to seek treatment in a hostile area. But what other choice do we have?
Georgian Opposition: The government is using medical services as a way to try to woo the Abkhaz away from the Russians
Russians: The Georgians are luring Abkhaz into their territory and then won't let them return home.
Assessment- Who in the world knows what the truth it!?! It's pretty wild, but fascinating to hear people argue and disagree over things like this.
Tuesday morning our first meeting at ICCN was with Mamuka Kuparadze and the producer of Studio Re. Mr. Kuparadze is the director of several documentary films showing different aspects of the conflict between Georgia and the breakaway territories. I'm about to show how much of a nerd I am, but I love this director. He has incredible and emotional films capturing the true experience of the people. He pre-screened for us his new film that is coming out about the 2008 August War. The film really was great and afterwards he even gave me a disc of his other films!
After the film, we listened to Lasha Tugushi, who is head of a Tbilisi paper called Resonance. He spoke about the media in Georgia, which is only partially free and talked about how the government monopolizes the media to its benefit.
After Lasha, we headed back to Vino Veritas again for lunch. Lasha and a Georgian PhD student named Lara joined us to discuss their work. After lunch we had an appointment with Shota Utiashvili at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (basically their intelligence department). It was located back towards the airport so we had to pile into cabs. Julie, Katie, Ashley and I unfortunately got a little lost, but since we were the Russian speaking cab we finally made it to our destination. At the ministry, they hassled us a little bit at security attempting to take our phones, cameras and laptops. But, once the minister's assistant came down they backed off and we got to take everything in with us! Too bad we were too scared to take any pictures. They took us into this big room about the size of a hotel conference room. It was completely bare, everything was white except for a roll in table with chairs. It was the epitome of what you would see in a spy thriller of a room that the captured spy gets drug into and questioned. It was crazy! As usual, he had a very interesting perspective on the whole conflict situation.
After the Ministry, we headed back to the hotel for about 15 minutes to regroup before our next meeting at 5pm. My cab got back first, so I laid in my bed and closed my eyes for what I thought was going to be 5 minutes. I still had my shoes on and my purse around my shoulder, but the next thing I knew it was 20 minutes later and we had to run downstairs so we didn't miss our meeting at the GFSIS (Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Affairs). We listened to former Georgian Ambassador Archil Gegeschidze give us an academic perspective on Georgian and Russian relations. It was funny to here him give all of this information and at the very end summarize by saying, bottomline, Russia and Georgia have incompatible goals and show no sign of compromising anytime soon. No kidding! That was definitely not the most positive way to end our day.
Anyways, after this meeting, we hauled back to the hotel for a cultural evening. We had a great feast, including caviar, Georgian wine, and a special drink gift given to us called chacha (homemade vodka). In addition, Neli, our guide, managed to get a very famous Georgian singing group to come and perform during dinner. It was another night of toasts to everything from music, to love, to Georgia, and even to Georgia's enemies. Once people had enjoyed their wine and chacha, it somewhat turned into a talent show. We had multiple dances, singing in multiple languages, and topped the evening off with a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. By the time the evening was over and we got everyone to bed, I was just too tired to blog.
Wednesday morning came very fast and we had a very busy schedule. First we met with George Khutsishvili who is the founder and director of ICCN where we held our classes. He was a very interesting speaker and was open to pretty much any question that we might have. Immediately following him, we heard from the Ambassador of Switzerland Guenther Baechler. Switzerland currently serves as the mediator between Georgia and Russia in these conflicts. I found his opinions very interesting as someone whose job is to be impartial. It's crazy that they have completely cut off all communication between each other. He said that the Swiss even deliver mail and notes to each of the parties each week. I am a very visual learner, so I appreciated him using the drawing board:
After he spoke, we heard from a friend of our professor, Paata Zakareishvili. He was extremely opinionated and open about the current state of the Republic of Georgia. At one point, a girl in the group asked him why the Georgian government wasn't taking more steps to take care of the needs of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). His response, "because the government doesn't take care about anybody's needs." He was blunt to say the least, but very informative.
Following these morning discussions, we immediately left for a meeting at the U.S. Embassy with both representatives of the State Department and USAID. They piled us into this old, 18 seat van with no ac. I somehow got squished in the back and got waaaaaaayyyy to hot. Since I felt bad, they then labeled me the one who got car sick in the group even though I've never been carsick ever before. Oh well, it meant that I got to ride in the front seat for the rest of the week! We did get a snack on the bus, and one of my new favorites is a Georgian treat called Churchkhela. It has walnuts and other nuts all strung on a string and then it is dipped into a grape compote. It looks like a weird, ugly candle, but I promise it is delicious!
Of course, our embassy had the tightest security of anywhere around so it took forever to get inside. First we met with David Gehrenbeck of the State Department who gave us his thoughts on the matter, and then we heard from Joakim Parker from USAID. Unfortunately, those conversations were off the record, so I can't really write much about them here, but I will say that personally I was disappointed when we left.
After the Embassy, we drove out to Mtshketa to eat lunch and have a short afternoon tour. We ate at a restaurant my professor highly recommended, Sa Lobio. It was amazing! They are known for their lobio, obviously, and it was sooooooooo good! It's basically red beans, onions, cilantro, walnuts, and something else all crushed up into a liquid and then you eat it with "cornbread." I'm not sure what that "cornbread" was made of. It was super dry and so dense and heavy when I went to pick it up I almost dropped it. I'm not sure if I was just starving, but it tasted sooooo good!
Not only was the church and the view absolutely beautiful, but it was so nice to be out of the city and just to just relax for a bit. No more meetings, no more taking notes, just enjoying the sunshine! After our short visit, we had to head back to Tbilisi for a quick dinner before a late night meeting at the Ministry of Justice.We loaded up in cabs and headed over for our meeting at 8pm. We met with Andro Gigauri to discuss a new program that he is implementing in Georgia. He is reforming the criminal justice system for juveniles. Previously, Georgia has had a 0 tolerance policy, meaning that if a child steals a pen or a loaf of bread, they go to prison for several years. This seems ridiculous. So in his program, first-time offender juveniles are given a chance to reconcile with their victim and perform some kind of community service for them. It really is an intriguing way not only to give kids a second chance, but also to help those young people build and develop skills to help them be more successful in the future. The meeting was really interesting, but it lasted until 10:30 which meant we had been in meetings for over 13 hours. It was an exhausting day! I snuck a few pictures from the Ministry...
Check back tomorrow for our day-long adventure to Kazbekhi Mountain up on the Russian/Georgian border!!!
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