Heavy Snow in Conflict Zone Villages

Levan Sepiskveradze

Roads are often blocked in the villages located near the Tskhinvali region because of heavy snow, creating serious problems for local citizens’ transportation needs. Whilst roads in the Georgian villages of the Gori district, located close to Tskhinvali, are more or less satisfactory, roads in the villages of Kareli and Kaspi districts were last repaired in 1980s.

Although a new road was paved to Nikozi village from the Gori district in 2005, it is already damaged. Locals said the damage is a result of paving the road with bad asphalt and the hiring of unqualified workers. The damaged road from Gori to Nikozi creates many transportation problems, particularly in the winter.

The Karaleti-Ergneti road is in slightly better condition. The road was repaired after the war in August 2008, and unlike other villages of the Shida Kartli region, transportation along the Tkviavi-Ergneti road is more or less manageable in the winter, too.

Kareli district villages, which border the occupied district of Znauri (Kornisi), deal with the most problems related to transportation. Last spring, roads to several villages were graveled because people could not travel on them, even in the summer. However, this did not resolve the problem. The shelf life of the graveled road was no more than one year.

Dato Patiashvili, resident of Kareli district: “We can say that we are left at God’s mercy. They even repaired roads in the mountainous villages of Svaneti, but we still cannot properly travel. Most of our villages are located about 120 kilometers from Tbilisi, but since the population is not large, the government does not pay attention to us, even before elections. During heavy snow in winter, buses do not run to Satsikhuri – Koda villages, and when people want to travel to Tbilisi or to Agara, they have to walk 10 kilometers to Abisa or Ptsa villages.”

Patiashvili said that heavy snow in winter hinders transportation and causes a serious problem for villagers. Locals recalled the heavy snow of last year, when buses and minibuses could not reach the Georgian village of Chvrinisi and neighbors had to bring a sick elderly woman to Agara by sledge.

Agara is not a district center, but it is more convenient to reach for most villages in the Kareli district than Kareli, the actual district center. In the 1990s, residents of Georgian and Ossetian villages in Prone Gorge wanted to declare Agara a district center, even petitioning to the late Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s government, but to no avail.

Today, the residents of Kareli district villages mostly travel to Agara or Khashuri to trade or go on other business. They only travel to Kareli when they need to get official documents from the district administration. Locals blame the Shida Kartli regional government for negligence and claim that only Gori district residents work at the regional administration, only paying attention to their district’s problems and ignoring those of other people.

Gia Jaulishvili, resident of Agara: “Gori residents are not strangers at all. We do not complain about Gori residents, but everybody can see that if anything positive is done in our region, it happens only in Gori and Gori district villages. Nobody remembers us, though the Kareli district is also a conflict zone. Znauri district villages border with our villages and Russian checkpoints are located alongside the village of Abano. Two years ago, they finally repaired the road to the village of Abisa, and people hoped roads would be repaired in other villages, too. But their hopes were in vain. Now, you cannot reach even the village of Atotsi in January, though St. Giorgi’s Church is located there.”

Atotsi’s St. Giorgi Church is one of the most prominent examples of Georgian architecture from the medieval centuries. Like the village of Nikozi’s Episcopal Cathedral of the Archangels, Atotsi’s church was a temple for both Georgian and Ossetian parishioners.  Because of the current political situation and a lack of proper roads, a majority of Ossetian parishioners cannot visit these temples. The same situation has befallen Lomisi’s St. Giorgi Church, which is located close to Akhalgori. However, as locals told humanrights.ge, a small number of Ossetian parishioners try to secretly travel to these temples, even in winter.

Kakha Khubulashvili, an IDP from Znauri district: “My many relatives and friends live on “the other side.” We used to go to Atotsi Church every year. The church was considered to protect childless families, and many Ossetian parishioners will tell you that their children were born after they visited the church. I do not want to publish their names, but two of my relatives from Znauri district secretly visited the church in December; they came and returned on foot. Even if the roads were not blocked, nobody would travel there by car because of the bad roads. Only big trucks can travel there to transport firewood to Tskhinvali and to Vladikavkaz.

Several bus routes run in the western part of Prone Gorge, including Koda-Abano-Khashuri, Chvrinisi-Kareli and Ptsa-Khashuri; the old buses, produced in the 1960s, often go wrong, so passengers often get stuck in the middle of road. In addition, a new minibus runs from Koda to Rustavi (via Tbilisi) once a week, though it does not work in the winter. Minibuses go to Tbilisi from the villages of Abisi and Ptsa, because roads there are in better conditions.

We got in touch with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure regarding the aforementioned problem. Representatives of each ministry said the resolution of these problems is not within their jurisdiction and forwarded us to the other.

Davit Gogadze, head of the public relations department at the Ministry of Economy replied to us: “These issues are not within the scope of our ministry, so you should make inquiries to the transportation department. Generally, you should apply to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure regarding the roads.”

As for the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, their public relations department told us: “We confirm the receipt of your questions. However, those issues are not within the jurisdiction of the transportation department, so you should get in touch with the Ministry of Economy.”

There is already heavy snow in the villages of Prone Gorge. We checked the information and discovered that buses are still running there from Khashuri and Gori; however, minibuses are avoiding traveling to villages of Koda, Abano, Satsikhuri, Chvrinisi and Atotsi.

Photo of qartli.ge