Tbilisi, Georgia

Tyler's school took him on a trip to Tbilisi, Georgia at the end of May as part of a regional security exercise.  They stayed just behind Freedom Square in the heart of Tbilisi for 5 days studying Georgia's security dynamics and their aspirations for joining NATO and the EU.

This is the VW bus bar on the rooftop bar of the hotel. 

Georgia has a very unique history mainly due to its geography. Wedged between three great historic powers, Turkey, Iran and Russia, it has constantly been conquered and subjugated.

  Additionally, surrounded by the very large Caucus mountains, it also has isolated pockets of very different ethnicities and languages.  No less than 19 different native languages are spoken by a wide variety of people. Georgia was conquered by Tsarist Russia in the 1700s and then only gained its independence for a few short years after the Bolshevik Revolution.  This freedom was short lived as less than three years later it was reconquered by the communist Red Army and absorbed into the USSR.

Again in 1991, it achieved independence as the USSR collapsed and has been independent since.  However, in 2008, a dispute with the breakaway province of South Ossetia escalated into a full-blown war with Russia.  Today, Russia occupies 20% of Georgian territory in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.  This tower is a memorial to the thousands of Georgian troops who died in 2008 fighting the Russian Army.  Every individual bar has the name of a soldier inscribed on it.

After several days of lectures, we all took a field trip to the town of Gori in the center of the country.  We first visited a museum dedicated to the life of Joseph Stalin, a Georgian from Gori.  The museum was opened in the 1970s during the height of the Soviet Union and was essentially hero worship of Stalin.  It tracked and glorified his life from a young age through several rooms filled with memorabilia.  It was slightly unsettling as he his known as the greatest mass-murderer in the history of the world.

After the tour, we had an hour to kill so we hiked to a castle on the top of a nearby hill and ate our packed lunches. 

Then we went to the EU monitoring mission headquarters to receive a brief on the border between Georgia and breakaway South Ossetia.  Actually, they stressed that it was not a border because Georgia did not recognize it as such.  Instead, it is referred to as an Administrative Boundary Line (ABL). The ABL did not have a fence along it until recently the Russians started erecting short segments of fence line and barbed wire the past few years in an effort to solidify the division between the two neighbors. 

Our group of about 20 split into 10 identical SUVs with big EU flags on them and drove a few miles to the ABL. From the first position, we could see Russian troops in bunkers and observation posts as well as several radar sites on a hill a few miles behind.  The bombed out husks of several buildings were visible.  We were told this was the front line during the war and the South Ossetians kept the buildings in their damaged state as a reminder and celebration of their independence.  We used binoculars to inspect and found Russians looking back at us with binoculars as well - surreal.

The Russians had about 19 military outposts scattered along the border with as many as 5,000 troops in the region. We drove along the border and saw many green signs with a mixture of Russian, English, Georgian, Ossetian and other languages telling people not to cross the line.

We made one last stop on the border and observed a small village that had been divided in two by the ABL.  A bunker with Russian troops was only a few hundred yards away with their main outpost visible a mile or two back.  It was quite interesting to see firsthand the tense situation in Georgia and the challenges facing it with such a menacing and overwhelming opponent in Russia.

I ventured about 20 minutes from the hotel to a flea market on a bridge over the river.  There was everything from antique china to paintings to bric-a-brac and old Soviet memorabilia.  I bought a wooly Soviet snow hat for Callum and some coins.

On our last evening, we had a large group dinner at a traditional Georgian restaurant.  The food came in several waves and most of us were stuffed before the first course was finished.  There was plenty of good Georgian wine, something they are know for as well as a dancing troop that performed the very distinctive traditional Georgian dancing.  The dancers held their torso and above very still while their legs did all sorts of kicks and stutter steps and then they would jump and spin wildly repeatedly striking the same unique pose airborne each time.

The next day happened to be Georgian Independence Day which was actually a sort of double event in that they celebrated independence from Tsarist Russia in 1918 and then from the Soviet Union in 1991.  The central square and boulevard was absolutely packed with families and a whole host of army vehicles were on display around Freedom Square.  I took a walking tour around the old town and up to the highest castle in the hills ringing the city by myself.  I ventured into a couple of Orthodox churches and took my time enjoying the unique architecture. It was a good hike and a beautiful day with panoramic views over the city. 

I then made my way down to the city square to wander a bit in the crowd and see what was on for the Independence day celebrations before our bus left for the airport.  The most unique thing I saw was  literally hundreds of children climbing all over the military vehicles.  It seemed that there was an intense sense of national pride in their military and continued independence from Russia.

I definitely enjoyed the trip, especially seeing a country I would probably never go to again.  I gained great respect for the people of Georgia, a country with less than 4 million people standing up against the might and intimidation of one of the world's regional powers, Russia.  It was a beautiful land with determined people and a unique history - a wonderful place to visit.