They do not know, that they have rights

Akhlakalaki is 60 kilometers away from Akhaltsikhe. The road seems to be half-repaired, however they promise to renew road reconstruction works soon. People live with hope here. The Abuli Mountain is covered with snow. Local people have already got used to poor life and severe climate.

You should drive through the village of Khulugmo until you reach Akhalkalaki. Then you enter the town after two sharp turnings. First of all you will see the statue of Shota Rustaveli, the local people are proud of it.

The town starts from the petrol station. Shops are following each other on the central Aghmashenebeli Street. The local people say that very soon the town will have as many shops and petrol stations as many people live there. Of course it is a joke. On the whole the local inhabitants live in poor social conditions. “Several people live here well. Moreover, they all have one surname,” said local residents. Two young residents of Akhalkalaki, Soso Melikidze and Beso Inasaridze, were my guides in the town. They willingly agreed my offer to show me round Akhalkalaki. “We are hanging out the whole day without any job,” with these words they explained me their quick acceptation of my offer. The youth has nothing to entertain with in the town.  They spend the whole day in the street. The only entertainment for my companions is standing near the patrol station.

“Our friend works for the Vissol petrol station and boys always gather there to entertain. Sometimes we play cards. We have nothing more to do. Some people, who like alcohol, gather in another place and drink. We prefer to play cards. Anyway, I am fed up with my life, I wish I worked,” said Melikidze.

There are five secondary schools in Akhalkalaki.  Three of them are Armenian schools; one is Georgian and one-Russian. Cinema house is a strange thing for local people.

“Who cares about cinema, when we cannot find a teacher for Georgian folk dances to train our children? Nobody wants to arrive here to work. I am really worried. We want to keep our Georgian culture in the district and we fail to succeed,” said local resident, Ketevan Khutsishvili, a mother of two children.

“Nobody needs us,” local people have such feeling about their situation.

“I had a chance to remain at the university in Tbilisi to work but I said at that time that Javakheti region needs me and returned here. Later I found out that nobody needs me,” said Ketevan Khutsishvili.

It makes no point to question local population about their rights.

“Here people do not know if they have any rights at all,” said local resident Arman Palanjian.

Very often girls are kidnapped in the district; of course, in these occasions boys steal them to get married with them.

“People do not know how to protect their rights. If a boy likes a girl, he considers she is his property. Their slogan is, she must be mine and that is all. Parents have to leave their kidnapped girls with the violator. Such accident is not considered to be a crime here,” said Ketino Khutsishvili, deputy director of the educational center for Akhalkalaki Adult Population.

As for local people, they give quite different explanation to the kidnapping.

“Boys steal girls in order to avoid giving wedding parties and thus their families have less expense,” said Frantse Akofiani.

Unemployment is the main problem for local people.

“I work, though all my relatives are unemployed. Nearly 2 % of the population might be employed in the town. Mostly men fail to find jobs. Thus they go to Russia to work though they have problems about visas. We do not know what will happen in future, the whole family lives on my salary,” said Iranik Makariani.

Majority of the Akhalkalaki population earns their living by trading. Nobody bans them trade in the street. You can buy anything with Russian ruble as well. There are always a lot of people in the market. Traders wait for customers in the snow and mud.

“Although my husband is a veteran of Abkhazian Civil War, we do not receive any allowances. We had an allowance on free 37 kilowatts of electricity a month and they deprived us from that either. I have three children to keep. So I went out in the street to trade in this cold. We bring citrus from Tbilisi. Sometimes we are lucky to earn money, sometimes we lose,” said Zoia Devdariani.

Meat is sold from the counters that follow one another in the street market. Customers do not care whether the meat is fresh or not. “They do not know that they have right to asking the quality of the food,’ said my companion, Inasaridze.

In Akhaltsikhe, nobody has painted building facades in various colors. People have not escaped the past life yet. The building of Water System Department still has a tablet with Russian slogan: “Fame to Great Soviet Union, a Builder of the Communism!”  Chinese shop work ten steps away from the slogan. A lot customers visit the shop.

Transport and water is Achilles Heel for local population.

“Roads are in poor conditions and transport does not run in the town. All villages in the district have problem about the water,” said Shorena Tetvadze, a teacher of the Georgian literature.

However, local people recall their happy past life in regret.

“Sewing factory was working in Akhalkalaki. There was also a factory that produced tow-lines and the production was imported to the republics of the former Soviet Union. A factory for shoes also worked in the district,” said Akofiani.

“Where can we read this article?” the boys asked me when parting. I do not know what to answer them, because they do not know anything about internet

Gulo Kokhodze, Akhalkalaki.