Word: gamsakhurdia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...homeland. There he daily faces more violence than he did as a major player in the cold war, as Georgia is beset by ethnic rebellions in the independence-minded regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and by a campaign of terrorist attacks by loyalists of deposed President Zviad Gamsakhurdia...
...return there last March, Shevardnadze has been beset by coup attempts, ethnic rebellions and acts of political terrorism. Seven days after the former Soviet Foreign Minister, now leader of Georgia's State Council, proclaimed a "manifesto" of reconciliation and released political prisoners, armed supporters of ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia struck again. They burst in on peace negotiations in the city of Zugdidi and abducted 12 officials...
...emotional late-night television address, Shevardnadze admitted that this latest setback to his plans was a "personal defeat." But he made it clear that his patience with Gamsakhurdia's rebellious followers had finally run out. Sounding a decidedly militant note, the onetime international peacemaker called on all Georgians to support him in crushing "the forces of evil." To match words with deeds, some 3,000 heavily armed national guard troops were dispatched to western Georgia, where support for Gamsakhurdia remains strong. In the breakaway region of Abkhazia, fierce fighting broke out after government forces sealed off the area...
During the republic's campaign for independence, the erstwhile friend of Mikhail Gorbachev was branded a "top Kremlin agent." But in the wake of ousting dissident turned despot Zviad Gamsakhurdia in January, Tbilisi leaders took a more benign view of the onetime Georgian Communist Party boss and last week appointed him to chair the new State Council, effectively giving Shevardnadze stewardship of his mountainous homeland. The veteran diplomat now faces pressing tasks: staving off economic collapse, healing the divisions created by months of civil strife and ending the isolation into which Georgia was pushed during Gamsakhurdia's flirtation with dictatorship...
...that all the parts of the old Soviet empire are clamoring to be recognized as independent sovereign states, their appeals will have to be seriously considered by the international community, however far they may be from the ideals of a Western democracy. As a U.S. official ruefully admitted, "Gamsakhurdia won an overwhelming expression of support in the May election. On the other hand, he was not running a democratic state." Self- determination may be a splendid principle, but the reality can be very different...