Reportage from the Village without Address

Gela Mtivlishvili

Village Erizimedi is located 65 kilometers away from Sighnaghi at Georgian-Azerbaijan border. The village was founded in 1989 and eco-migrants from Adjara autonomous republic were settled there. Officially, Erisimedi belongs to Sighnaghi district and is under jurisdiction of Georgia; however, even locals cannot enter the village without taking border control. Because of the unbearable conditions, villagers abandon the village. Several families have already returned to Khulo district in Adjara.

The road from Sighnaghi to Erisimedi is so damaged that it takes almost 2 hours to get there by car. There is a police checkpoint one kilometer away from the village. The tollgate is made of one alumina pipe tied to two wooden posts by wires. They raised the pipe and let the car go, but policemen immediately stopped us. We obeyed their order; got out of the car and asked the reason.

-Show your documents, ordered a young man.

-what documents?

-Passports and driving license

-We are driving to the village of Erisimedi

-Yes I know; where else will you go in this direction? Show your documents.

-Why are you asking documents?

-Stop complaining; give me your documents; or you will go nowhere and will have to return back.

-Why should not I go? How can you forbid me to travel within Georgian territory?

-It is border, brother and if you want to cross the border, you should show your documents; I have to register you in the journal. Don’t you see we are from the border police?

-I do not know who you are. If you represent border police then you should have correspondent IDs.

-Look at him, how much he is speaking. You will not cross the border and that’s settled.

-Where should not I go? I am going to Erisimedi.

“Show your passport to him; they will register you in the journal and then will let you go. Otherwise, you will not go. We live in similar situation. You are not local and for sure they will not let you go,” suggested the elderly man standing nearby.

At that time, two more people joined the young man who claimed he was border policeman. “Boss, come here; we have some problem; these strangers are creating problems,” in two-three minutes, before one more border-officer came by special vehicle, the border-officers who were on the place took up guns. “You have crossed the border illegally and we can detain you. Why are you speaking so much?” asked one of them. The man from the vehicle also tried to protect the young officer. “What do you want? What are you doing here?” he asked me.

-Who are you?

-I am head of the group. What do you want?

-We are going to Erisimedi.

-Who are you?

-I am an ordinary citizen; they are my friends. We are going to Erisimedi as guests.

-But you will not go there.

The armed border officers targeted their guns. “Shall we detain him, boss?” they asked the man who introduced himself as the head of the group.

I called my colleague in Dedoplistkaro district Inga Shiolashvili and asked her to give me the phone-number of the head of border police department Demur Kekenadze. Soon I called him.

-Good day, Mr. Demur, it is journalist Gela Mtivlishvil.

-Good day, why are you calling?

-Mr. Demur, is the border police checkpoint at the entrance to the village Erisimedi subordinated to your department?

-Yes it is.

-My colleague and I are here. We were going to Erisimedi but your policemen do not let us go. They demand our passports or IDs. Otherwise, they claim we will be detained for illegal crossing of border.

-Yes, you should show your passport or ID, there is such regulation.

-Why? We both, me and my colleague Madona Batiashvili are Georgian citizens and Erisimedi is within Georgian jurisdiction, is not it?

-Mr. Gela, we have similar order. We do not control the border beyond that place and that is the problem. Anyway, I will call the officers at the border and they will let you go since I know who you are.

Kekenadze called the head of the group and told them to allow us without checking and registering our documents.

“Initially, when we were settled here, there were 36 houses built. The rest were built later. Certain Kevkhishvili was the head of Sighnaghi district and the man directly told us: “we are settling you here in order to protect Georgian territories.” Before our arrival, Azeri people from the neighboring villages of Azerbaijan republic lived in this territory; they had farms and had cattle. Initially, we had problems but later we got stronger with the support of the government,” said the local resident Tamaz Abashidze who met us soon after we entered the village.

Only public school is working in Erisimedi. It is working in one-storied house. The building is semi-destroyed; it does not have doors and windows; even the floor is damaged.

Dato Tavartkiladze, director of the Erisimedi public school: “School building is in a very bad condition. Walls are cracked and may collapse at any time. That’s why teachers and pupils are walking on tiptoes but the floor is damaged so that we often fall in cellar. Ministry of Education and Science offered us new stock but we do not have even building to put the furniture. Signagi district governor and the head of educational resource-centre are informed about the situation. Last year they promised to build new wooden school building before new school year but later they told me that there was not money in budget and postponed it for the next year. There are no elementary conditions, but children should learn reading and writing. We cannot take responsibility for the safety of children. In case of wind or rain we stop studies and leave building for not to be inside during collapsing.

Taliko Makharadze, teacher of primary classes of Erisamedi public school: “We are forbidden to speak but I should say”.

 -Who prohibits you to speak?

-We are threatened by police if we say a word. Some groups arrive and threaten us with losing of school and village if we do not keep silent. School building is not safe and how should not we say this? How did not they manage to allocate money for our village to build little building with several classrooms. 90%of our pupils are myopic.  Classrooms in current school are so small that the distance between desks and blackboard is only 1metre. Most of the pupils wear glasses. When children write tasks they almost put their heads on the desks. This is not the only problem, but we have neither water nor anything else. The outpatients clinic was renovated by the EU funds but nobody is allowed inside. Why did we need the renovated outpatients if we do not have a doctor? Why did they spend ten thousands of GEL?

The government recalls about us only before elections. Before the parliamentary elections on May 21, 2008 they promised to install wells in order to supply the village with drinking water if we had voted for Nugzar Abulashvili. They promised drinking water not ammonium saltpeter and we agreed. They made two wells in the village. Over 50 000 GEL was allocated from the budget. The elections finished and three days later both wells pulled down and we remained without water.

The river is flowing next to the school building. There is no drinking water in the school and when children are thirsty they drink river water. We do the same but those who do not drink river water, have to fetch it from the next village which is located 12 kilometers away. When we call ambulance, it takes them 2 hours to get from Sighnaghi. Several days ago, a child had cramp but the doctor was dictating us on the phone what to do.

In addition to that, if we manage to travel to Sighnaghi, we have problems to get home. The border checkpoint was opened at the entrance to the village and if we leave passport at home, they do not allow us in. Short time ago, a relative visited me from Kobuleti and her nephew was with her; they did not allow the boy into the village because he did not have passport. Why is there a border?”

Resan Tsetskhladze, resident of Erisimedi: “I have been living in Erisimedi since 2000. We have never had problems with border before. The border officers tell us they are standing here to protect us. Who are they protecting us from? From the residents of Sighnaghi and rest of Georgia? The border is not here and why are they standing here? If the locals travel to Sighnaghi, they request passports to return home. Short time ago, my cousin arrived here from Aspindze district and they did not allow him in because he did not have a passport. Azeri people have farm in the field on the other side of the border and my cousin stayed there.”

Dato Makharadze, resident of Erisimedi: “After the residential area, there is pasture land but we cannot go and use it. That land belongs to Georgia but Azeri border officers are standing there and we cannot approach them. They immediately arrest people claiming we are on their territory. When we settled here, we used that land and when Azeri side occupied it I do not know. If our cattle appear in the area, they arrest them too.

The school is pulling down. We do not have kindergarten, doctor; we cannot protect our cattle; people are not allowed into the village without passport and even a guest cannot visit us. After all these, why should I stay here? Several families have fled from here and maybe others will also join them.”

The Sighnaghi district office of the Public Registration Agency reported that after 2007 the residents of Erisimedi have strange address in their IDs: Sighnaghi, without address.

According to the Agency, for the same reason, the villagers do not have their houses registered as private property.

Reportage was prepared within the Project “Development of the Kakheti News Center with financial support of the Foundation Open Society-Georgia