People from the Mountainous Region Urge for Help

There is neither nursery and secondary schools and nor market and pharmacists in the area. You will not see any houses built with stone. The inhabitants cannot reach the regional center via proper road. Thus, ambulance cannot arrive in the village and the three families, living only in train carriages and hut, can be medically aided by seventy-year-old woman.

The village of Fkhoveli includes the Arashenda community in Gurjaani District and is situated 12-13 kilometers from the town. At the first site you will not guess that people live there. Their huts, made of wooden branches, are hidden in trees and bushes. Long time before, ethnic Phkhovelis from the Phkhovi region settled in the area.

“As you see, we do not have the minimal living conditions, either. You cannot drive from Gurjaani to here. After a rain in summer, the holes on the road fill with water and then no car can move along the road during the season. Our situation particularly worsens in winter. The village is in the mountain and in winter it is heavy snow and frost in the area. It takes 8-9 hours to walk to the village from Gurjaani through the forest. Besides that unless you have a gun, a wild animal might attack you on your way through the forest. Wolves attacked our village, thus we do not care about our domestic animals, and we are concerned about ourselves. All in all, we live the hardest life,” said Zurab Sadunashvili. He also added, though their village is mountainous, the villagers have never received allowances for their category.  “Nobody remembers us even during the elections, maybe because three families cannot change anything. We have applied to the regional administrative board, in vain,” he said.

Despite hard life the villagers say that they are forced to leave the place. “We have been forgotten for a long time. Instead of aid, several people abused us together with the local government. They used to appropriate our plots. Such situation is still going on,” said Vazha Iaganashvili.

Villagers said that businessman Sergi Kakalashvili, a close person to the regional authority and the Kakheti Region Governor, has increased interest in the area. He is carrying out different activities in the neighbor village. “We were told that Kakalashvili wanted to buy our territory similar to the neighbor village of Ziari, and we were preventing him from acting so. His mediators asked us whether we wished to leave our huts. We do not intend to leave the place and every person who tries to subdue us through investing in the area; we resist them as well as we do in the case of the animals attacking us. We advise them instead of suppressing us let them assist the poor villagers,” the people from the village cannot help their anger.      

One of the owners of the Forte-Kakheti Company is interested in the village of Phkhoveli because of the wealth in the area. We asked sixty-six-year old Durmishkhan Tsukoshvili for the information about the wealth. “There are 19 churches and ruins of three fortresses in the village. Pure, mineral water, like Borjomi, is leaking from the ground in here. We have medical mud-bath like Akhtala too. Our sand foams up. At least the most important is the oil field which has not been used yet.”

Officials from the Gurjaani Municipality categorically deny the fact of the villagers complaining. The deputy Gamgebeli of the region, Valeri Vardosanidze, said that he had been appointed to this position a little time ago and did not have information about all problems in the district. “I worked in Telavi. Thus, I do not know anything about the problems in Gurjaani; however, Gia Natsvlishvili, Kakheti Region Governor, is personally interested in the situation in villages of the region. He is enquiring about their problems in details and we estimate what resources each of them have,” said Vardosanidze.

It was impossible for the Human Rights Center to get through the Gurjaani Gamgebeli. He did not answer our calls. In his office, the representatives of the Human Rights Center were told by receptionist that he was busy discussing too urgent matters and could not comment on the fact.

The center got in touch with Kakalashvili too, but he, having heard the point of our conversation, refused to speak with us.

People from Phkhoveli urge for help, however there is no rescuer is nowhere to be seen.

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti