AKHALKALAKI DEMILITARIZED!
by Koba Liklijadze (Radio Liberty)
Translated by A. Ignatkin
Source: 24 Saati (Tbilisi), May 25, 2007, EV
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
May 30, 2007 Wednesday
Georgia Bids Adieu To The Russian Military Base In Akhalkalaki;
Russian military presence in Georgia is nearly over.
Time has run out for the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki, which
is now almost 200 years old. The last echelon with Russian military
hardware departed the head yard in Akhaltsikhe for Russia on May 24.
Several dozen Russian officers and soldiers guarding the empty
warehouses and headquarters are all that remains of the military base.
The locals grew accustomed to the inevitability of the pullout.
Barely three years ago they were convinced that the withdrawal of
the base would leave them without jobs. Unnerved by the prospect,
they were prepared to form a live ring of protesters around this
fossil of the 200-year long occupation.
Some observers predicted ethnic tension and separatism in the
Armenian-populated Akhalkalaki following withdrawal from the base.
The Georgian authorities in the meantime began offering alternatives
to the locals a year ago. "Employees of the base will be employed by
the Georgian military base and guaranteed salaries adequate to their
current ones. People with apartments in the so-called cantonment will
become their rightful owners," Goga Chakhidze, President’s Envoy in
Samtskhe-Javakhetia, explained.
Regardless of whether or not a Georgian military unit would be
installed where the 62nd Russian Military Base was to provide jobs
for the locals, the latter could only accept their reassurances.
According to the Defense Ministry of Georgia, some military materiel
is still present on the territory of the base in Akhalkalaki, but
the amount is so insignificant that Russia will be able to carry it
out by lorries.
"The Georgian authorities cannot lay claims to anything that belongs
to Russia but they must make sure that the territory of the cantonment
is absolutely safe," RL quoted military expert Irakly Aladashvili as
saying. "I mean the shells, munitions, and landmines – not to mention
radioactive substances – that pose a danger."
Bombs and shells abandoned on the territories of Russian military bases
in Georgia cost 20 Georgians their lives over the last four years. The
army depot of the 12th Military Base (Batumi) in Khelvachauri is
particularly hazardous from this standpoint. Georgy Muchaidze,
Chief of the Department of International Contacts of the Defense
Ministry of Georgia, claims that the territories of the military
bases in Akhalkalaki and Batumi require chemical decontamination and
engineering surveillance. "We will demand from Russia all documents
on the ecological shape of the base. We want to have all the relevant
information," he said.
According to the Georgian Defense Ministry, the Akhalkalaki military
base will be closed down in autumn of 2007, the one in Batumi by
2008. Georgia will meet May 26, 2006, without Russian military bases
on its territory.