Word: gamsakhurdia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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International concern was heightened last week by heavy fighting in the center of Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, where political rivals of the high- handed President Zviad Gamsakhurdia were trying to blast him out of government headquarters. More than 50 people were killed and 200 wounded. Surprisingly, the fire fight did not spread from the downtown area of the city, and most of Tbilisi went about its normal business, apparently out of exhaustion or indifference...
...Georgia hostilities deepened as renegade national guardsmen joined civilian efforts to oust Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the republic's authoritarian president. About 60 rebel guardsmen were reported killed in a clash with republic troops . . . The seizure of power in Tadzhikistan by Rakhman Nabiev, a hard-line former Communist Party chief, prompted thousands of people to defy a newly imposed state of emergency. Crying "Communist coup!," protesters vowed to resist Nabiev's administration . . . Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement calling for a cease-fire and negotiations to end their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, but the fighting continued. Among...
Detractors also charge that Gamsakhurdia is running Georgia's economy into the ground. "Five months have been wasted since independence was declared," says opposition leader Irakli Shenghelaia. "By now, Georgia should have proved itself ready for investments, for international ties, for peace and order." Instead the republic's economy is stuck on the same old treadmill: too many fruits and minerals but not enough export-oriented industry. Georgia still relies on imported grain, meat, sugar and dairy products to feed itself. Supplies have become so short that earlier this month Gamsakhurdia forbade the export of vegetables, meat and building materials...
Then there is the matter of Gamsakhurdia's behavior during the tense days surrounding the Aug. 19 coup attempt. On Aug. 20 Interfax, an independent Soviet news service, reported that Gamsakhurdia had agreed to comply with Emergency Committee orders to disarm the Georgian National Guard. Gamsakhurdia dismisses the charge as the work of "common liars who want to slander me." But the fact remains that soon after the coup was set in motion, he ordered the National Guard into the countryside, supposedly on a training exercise. A large portion of the 15,000-strong guard ignored the order and holed...
Though the opposition ranks keep growing, it is impossible to gauge with any certainty the extent of the discontent. Some polls claim Gamsakhurdia's popularity has dwindled to just 20%. His followers counter that support for the president still runs as high as 80%. That sounds wildly optimistic, but there is no denying that the beleaguered president has his ardent advocates. The throngs that gather daily outside Gamsakhurdia's parliamentary refuge, packed mostly with women, drape banners that read DEAR ZVIAD. WE ARE WITH...