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From Gori to Kurta…

August 14, 2007

xeobab.jpgYou have to travel by mini-bus from Gori to the village of Tirdznisi to get to the Gorge. Then you will take a bus and it will start moving along difficult road to the Gorge of Big Liakhvi (river).

Although there are several signs on the bus “Do Not Stand on Bus”, the driver does not appear before two o’clock and the bus gets overcrowded… Nobody remembers that they must not stand on foot.

The driver tries to drive carefully, the road is terrible…dust, heat. So you should be brave to drive twice a day along that road…

Residents of the Gorge of Small Liakhvi also travel by that bus and the driver starts complaining…”I have not taken people from the big gorge and you are traveling instead of them. Are not you ashamed, so many buses run to your place and those people have no more chance to go home.”

Do not think that people from big and small gorges dislike each other, just the opposite they respect each other. They exchange kind smiles on bus. But the problem is that only one small bus runs twice a day in the Gorge of Big Liakhvi.

Despite terrible heat passengers speak about big politics on bus…the bomb that fell into the Gori District is the urgent topic for their conversation. Mostly people wonder how Russian jet crossed Georgian air and nobody noticed it…

“Where were our frontiers? How could they let them in? Were they playing domino? And Russian frightened us; they calmly dropped bomb on our land and left Georgia without any obstacle…Who will protect us? They did it on purpose; they dropped it in Ossetian village,” one of the passengers said.

“I cannot understand why they dropped it in Ossetian village. Does Ossetian mother cry better than Georgian mother?” asked the second.

The topic of “Big politics” changed into social problems. It is incredible that 12 million lari was spent on recently built long road to the Gorge of Big Liakhvi.

“Now we can travel along this road but will it be in order in winter? It is impossible to travel along it when it is raining and when it snows we will not be able to travel to Gori at all,” passengers are complaining.

The bus pulls down at the Eredvi block post.

The road ahead goes on the top of mountain and it is even worse. The whole valley can be viewed from there. If traveling were not so dangerous, the passenger should have endured the difficult trip watching such a beautiful landscape…But passengers are afraid of armed Osseetian people who might appear from the forest along the road.

After a three-hour-journey the bus reaches Kurta…

Problem of Mixed Families

Uncle Mikho is Ossetian, lives in the village of Kurta and does not remember Georgian people ever insulted him. His wife is Georgian and everybody says that uncle Mikho is a generous man. “We do not care that he is Ossetian. He is a perfect man,” said neighbors.

He has a family, owns estate and nobody harasses him though Ossetian people consider he is a traitor. He has not seen most his relatives for many years.

The old man was a shepherd but Ossetian people harassed him.

“They attacked him three times and grabbed cattle. They told he deserved death because he lived with Georgian people,” said the wife of uncle Mikho.

“In early time Ossetian and Georgian people never had arguments. But now it is terrible situation…What is the difference between Osetians and Georgians. Everybody is good. Let us be clam and live in peace. My son-in-law is Ossetian and my daughter lives in Tskhinvali. Although they have a house in the village we cannot go there because it is Ossetian village and neither can they visit us. They are afraid of their people. Because of tense situation they avoid to contact with Georgians. Somebody might give them away if they visit us,” said Aunt Leila.

Being unable to visit relatives is not only problem for these people. Local people have cattle and it is the only income for them. Now they cope with problems in this field too.

People from the gorge complain that they cannot take their cows to pastures because of Ossetian people. The latter set border on pasture and Georgian people cannot cross it. The problem is that on the other side there are plots of Georgian residents which they inherited from their grandfathers. Consequently, the people from the Gorge can hardly reap harvest enough for their families.

“We dream of walking along Tskhinvali streets. Sometimes we need salt, or something else and we cannot get to Gori because recently built road is too long. There are people who bring products to sell in the village but everything is too expensive. We have to pay 1, 80 lari for a kilo of tomato while it costs only one lari in Gori. We have no income expect our pension. We used to get much harvest and Ossetian people bought it. Both peasants and traders profited from the situation. We were selling our product from our yards but now I do not know what will happen. Nobody is coming to buy something. Apple is the source for our income but we cannot transport it. We could not sell our fruit in spring. Maybe they will build a juice factory or something like that in the area and we will deliver our products there,” said the hostess of the family.

People from the Liakhvi Gorge prefer to stay anonymous. They are sure that the Ossetian people will learn about their statements and then they will have serious problems because of that. 

Thea Tedliashvili, Liakhvi Gorge

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