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“New Anaklia” on the Private Land

July 28, 2010
Paata Lagvilava

“Life, freedom and property do not exist not only because people created the law, but because the existence of the life, freedom and poverty created the law,” Clod Frederic Bastia, French economist (1801-1850).

The president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced the plan of the development and rehabilitation of the infrastructure in Anaklia on September 8 last year and promised the locals that in 2-3 years Anaklia would be a nice sea-resort. Those Spanish architects will work on the project of “New Anaklia” who planned the new boulevard in Batumi. He said yacht-club, hanging bridge, boulevard and new infrastructure will be constructed in Anaklia. However, the local people could not even imagine that it would happen at the expense of their property.

Who own the land in Anaklia?

After the visit of the president in Anaklia, the plots of the local people started to be registered as the property of the ministry of economic development. The plots were seized on various grounds.

1.    The state easily seized the plots from the citizens who used the land for many years but had not officially registered them. A very simple argument was enough: “You have been using the state property for a long time without paying any tax and now the state needs it back.”

However, according to the legislation, if a person uses the state land for more than 15 years, can legalize the land. However, government achieved its goals easily because the locals did not know the law. Consequently, people lost the plots which they had used for many years; the plots are now property of the ministry of economic development.

2.    The land-owners, who had property-documents issued during Shevardnadze’s government, were indicated on some shortcomings in the documents and the government seized the land from them very easily as illegal property. Head of Zugdidi district public registration agency Kakhaber Jolokhava clarified that the state got back the land which was illegally assigned to people.

The owners of these plots were invited to the prosecutor’s office and threatened with creating legal problems for “illegal misappropriation” of the land; so they had to assign the property to the state as a present.

3.    The  land was seized from legal owners of the plots who had inherited or purchased them and had registered the property in the public registration agency only because the property documents had not been submitted to the agency on time; but those too, who had submitted the documents on time, gave their plots to the state as presents for uncertain reasons.

“They have seized my plot but I cannot do anything”

A resident of Anaklia Tornike Bubuteishvili had registered his plot in the public registration agency and had the document to prove it; however it was located within the territory where the new project for the development of Anaklia was planned; or how the locals were told – their plots were “overlapped” and the state misappropriated their properties (“overlapped” is the territory which  is not within the boundaries of the private owner and occupies the state territory too; or state and private lands are within one boundaries).

Building company “Dagi” builds five-story hotel in one part of the yard of Bubuteishvili’s house. The new boulevard will be constructed on the other part of his yard. Although construction activities are going on in his yard, nobody has paid compensation to him. Tornike Bubuteishvili does not want to speak about it with media: “you know that they seized my property but I cannot do anything; they warned me to be silent.” In private talks he said he was threatened. “They seized the forest and agricultural plot from me but I do not care about it; they even seized the territory where I lived; nobody paid compensation to us and I do not expect anything in future either. They said – if you start complaining, your son in Tbilisi will face problems.” Bubuteishvili doubts that entire village will face similar problem soon. “Merabishvili and Adeishvili visit the village every week and personally control everything. They have destroyed me and I cannot complain about it; if I say anything I will create more problems. They promised to employ me as a worker; it would be nice if they give me at least some job.”

The workers on the construction confirmed the information about frequent visits of the minister of internal affairs Vano Merabishvili and minister of justice Zurab Adeishvili in Anaklia. In private talks they said the hotel belongs to Merabishvili.

Land – A Compulsory Present

Most residents of Anaklia village have same problem as Bubuteishvili. We heard many similar stories there. Some of them found their plots registered on the state when they applied to the public registration agency. After they tried to get the property back, all of them changed their minds and decided to give the plots to the state as a present. However, nobody speaks about it except Marina Sordia.

Marina Sordia registered her plot in the public registration agency during the governance of the Rose Authority – on September 3, 2007. Despite that, Sordia’s plot (registration zone 43, sector 30, quarter # 1, plot # 211, and registration # 433001211) turned up in the overlapped zone. In the document issued by the public registration agency Marina Sordia is the owner of the plot; co-owners of the plot of 1800 sq, meters are her children Tamar and Aleksi Esartias. The registration agency issued the property document based on the receive-acceptance agreement (# 50) and notification of the Zugdidi district state archive (# 393). Despite all that, Marina Sordia lost her plot and two years after the registration agency issued the property document on her, her land became the state property on November 19, 2009 after the president announced his new plans about Anaklia.

The public registration agency issued property documents on two owners of one plot within 2 years.

Tamar Kordzaia, lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association: “We have a law on depriving the property for public necessity which is called expropriation process but in this concrete case it is not expropriation at all. The Constitution allows an exception when a railway road or some networks are to be constructed or some very important activities shall be implemented, the land can be seized from the owner. However, it requires special procedures. If the property is seized for public necessity, the president shall make decision which shall be approved by the court and the property shall also be valued and the owner shall receive adequate compensation. Based on these examples, we can say that it is violation of the property rights.”

Like Sordia other neighbors also applied to the Zugdidi office of the public registration agency but they could not get documents. “After me, the registration agency learned a good lesson and they will not issue two contradictory documents now.”

We are also explained at the public registration agency that “the state is the owner of the land which is overlapped;” however, they could not explain why.

Before seizing the plot # 211, Marina Sordia assigned her other plot to the state though it was registered at the registration agency.

“We had a plot of 700 sq. meters in the territory where they are building a hotel now; my son had to build a house there. When they started the construction nobody asked us permission.  When I asked the workers what they were doing on my land, they said they had right for the activities and I had to apply to corresponding agencies. I wrote to Zugdidi district governor and explained to him that illegal construction was going on in my plot and asked his assistance. Several days later I was called to the prosecutor’s office. Prosecutor Gia Berishvili said the land was illegally assigned to me and I had to return it to the state; otherwise I would have faced problem with other plots too; they meant the plot # 211 which was recently appropriated by the state. The prosecutors, investigators were warning me to avoid problems. I was alone and got afraid; I told them if the state and the Rose Government needed assistance from a widow and impoverished woman like me, I could forget my poverty and give my plot to the state,” said Sordia whose house was burnt several years ago.

Maria Sordia added that after this compulsory decision, she was ordered to write an application to the prosecutor’s office and sign the document on giving the plot to the state as a present. However, Sordia refused to sign the document at the prosecutor’s office but after being threatened she signed the document in the Zugdidi office of the public registration agency. “Will a clever person give his/her land to the state willfully? I had my house burnt and how could I give the plot to the state? But I was threatened and had no other way out. How could I be sure that they would not keep their promise and do some harm to my children; I do not have the guarantee now too,” said Marina Sordia with tears.

Marina Sordia claims that in exchange of the plot she was promised not to have any problems regarding her other plots. However, despite similar promises, they turned up in the “overlapped” territories. Now she remained without land and calls herself – “robbed by the state”; she is going to appeal to the court together with her several neighbors to restore the justice. She handed the petition personally to the President Mikheil Saakashvili during his visit in Anaklia but nobody has ever got interested in her problems so far.  

“I am not going to give up my property. I will not be able to return the plot I assigned to them under force but I will not give up my other plots. I will die in this struggle,” said Sordia.

“If Marina Sordia proves that she gave the plot to the state against her will, she can return the property back. However, on the other hand – it is arguable whether she will succeed in the current judiciary system. Nevertheless, she has to take these steps in judiciary procedures,” said lawyer Tamar Kordzaia.

Misappropriation of the Land

After the head of the Zugdidi office of the Public Registration Agency Kakhaber Jolokhava sent us to the press-center of their office to get the replies to our questions, we received the letter from them: “Registration procedures on Marina Sordia’s application was dropped because she could not provide the documents within the estimated deadline.”

Marina Sordia said the public registration agency did not warn her about dropped registration process. Furthermore, Sordia learned about it only after her neighbors faced similar problems and applied to the public registration agency for help.

Afterwards, Marina Sordia provided the following documents to the public registration agency to eradicate the basis for suspension of the registration process: the property document on the land issued by the public registration agency on September 3, 2007; the draft of the land approved by the registration agency which was enclosed by the electronic version of the same draft; receive-acceptance agreement and notification # 393 from Zugdidi district archive.

“They are lying at the public registration agency: I brought all necessary documents and electronic version of land measurement three times. They said it made no difference because I could not achieve anything at all. They said I was mostly victimized by the state. I gave one plot to the state for the guarantee to keep other plots but the government took everything from me,” said Sordia.

Position of the Ministry of Economic Development and Secret Administrative-Legal Act

Marina Sordia, like her neighbors, was not against assigning her property to the state for the corresponding compensation. Thus, we tried to find out why the people were not compensated in accordance to the law; we tried to find the administrative-legal basis for transferring the private property into a state property for three months.

We tried to get the answers to our questions at the ministry of economic development, Zugdidi municipality board, Anaklia village administration, public registration agency and prosecutor’s office. We requested all resolutions and decisions from the Zugdidi district municipality board they had issued since 2008. However, they could not show the document to prove the legal basis for transferring the private property into a state property.

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regional agency of the state property registration and privatization department replied to our letter: “We did not receive any letter on transferring a private property into a state property and consequently we have not issued any administrative-legal act.”

The ambiguous reply of the Ministry of Economic Development proved that neither Sordia nor her neighbors assigned their plots to the state willfully and second, if it is the reply of the ministry, they have not issued any legal act either similar to the public registration agency which claims the only reason for seizing the property was location of the plots in the “overlapped” territory. Accordingly, the assignation of the plot was not official process at all.

Not a single state agency confirms the seizure of the plot from private owners. Furthermore, they have no information about the problem either. Consequently, the basis of the deprivation becomes more obscure. Anaklia village governor Davit Tskhadaia said: “I know everything about their problems; the elections have finished and I hope the problems will be resolved. However, I do not know whether these people will receive compensations or not.”

New Anaklia and Negligence of the Principles of Liberal Economy

According to the project, yacht-club, hanging bridge, boulevard, hotels and new infrastructure should be constructed in Anaklia. As we have already mentioned above, 360-meter-long Anaklia-Ganmukhuri Bridge and youth camp were already opened. Two hotels are being built. The building company “Sani”, which won the competition, is building ten-story hotel there. The representatives of the company said they purchased the land from the state and are now building the hotel there. Part of the land belonged to Marina Sordia. If the land was really sold out, why the real owner did not know anything about it and why she did not receive corresponding reimbursement for it? State agencies cannot answer this question today.

“Dagi, Ltd” is building 5-story hotel on the land of Tornike Bubuteishvili; the company had to finish the hotel on August 7. Besides that, “Dagi” is winning other important projects throughout Georgia. They repaired the residential buildings for IDPs in Poti, reconstructed the “Torpedo” stadium and Opera House in Kutaisi.
 
Journalist of the “New Newspaper” Maia Metskhvarishvili wrote in her article “Millions in the Money-Box of the National Movement from Contributions”: “On March 14, 2008, two months before the parliamentary elections, “Dagi Ltd” contributed 20 000 GEL to the National Movement; on December 21, 2007 - several weeks before the presidential elections - the company contributed 40 000 GEL to the ruling party.”

The Zugdidi municipal board ordered the “Dagi Ltd” to build the hotel in Anaklia.  Consequently, the funds for the construction are spent from the district budget,

Lawyer Tamar Kordzaia said the municipal board has right to build similar hotel but there is one necessary requirement: “If the hotel is the property of the municipal board, the income shall be reflected in the district budget as additional independent revenue.”

“The district administration has right to carry out pilot economical activities but hotel business does not belong to similar activities. It is pure entrepreneur activity. This action is blatant interference of the government into business activities and contradicts the principles of the liberal economy and the act introduced by the president several months ago… I think, the district administration will assign the hotel to the investor who will run the hotel and they will supposedly share the income,” said the expert Davit Narmania.

The founder of the “Dagi Ltd” Gogi Gulordava and head of the economic and infrastructure department of the Zugdidi district administration confirmed that “Dagi” is building five-storied hotel for the district administration. However, Anaklia village governor Davit Tskhadaia said the opposite. He said the company acted in accordance to the directives of the ministry of justice and ministry of internal affairs.

”The ministry of justice and MIA ordered the “Dagi Ltd” to build the hotel; as far as I know the construction should finish at the beginning of August,” said the village governor. We asked him whether district administration had any connection with it but he replied: “I do not know. I have heard the ministry of justice and MIA are constructing it.”

As we have mentioned above, the workers also confirm the frequent visits of the ministers to Anaklia. The president was going to open the hotel on August 8 – on two years anniversary of the war with Russia.

The ministry of justice does not confirm the information; the spokesperson of the ministry Khatuna Iosava said: “The fact that somebody controls the ongoing construction activities and visits the place frequently does not mean that they are order-makers. I can assure you that the ministry of justice is not building any hotel in Anaklia.” The press-center of the MIA has not replied to our question yet.

Anaklia village administration does not have information what economical profit they will have from the “new resort season”, or how many people will be employed there.

Article was prepared within the framework of the project “Journalistic Investigation in Samegrelo Region” funded by the Eurasian Partnership Foundation within the EU funded project - Strengthening the Media’s Role as a Watchdog Institution in Georgia.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the newspaper “Tavisupali Sitkva” (Free Word) and cannot be taken as to reflect the views of the European Union and Eurasian Partnership Foundation

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