Rescue workers at the Enguri River (RFE/RL) TBILISI, DFWatch--Four people were found dead on the banks of the Enguri River on Wednesday. The four are believed to have drowned as they tried to cross from Abkhazia to Georgian-controlled territory bypassing Russian border guards and Abkhaz customs officers. Rescue workers found the bodies of three people Wednesday [...]
Enguri Bridge. (DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch--Gali residents demand the opening of the checkpoint on Enguri Bridge and the lifting of the five-day quarantine for travelers that have been tested for Covid-19. Locals told DFWatch that because of the quarantine requirement, many people have resorted to a dangerous route, wading through the surging Enguri river at the so-called [...]
(DFWatch.) ZUGDIDI, DFWatch--Most of the school graduates from Abkhazia who were stuck at Enguri bridge on their way to exams eventually managed to get through on Monday, DFWatch was told by several of them. However, some teenagers are still stranded at the only point of crossing between the breakaway republic and Georgia proper. Due [...]
(DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch--Sokhumi has set a fixed price for obtaining a residene permit, a document that is required, but hard for many here to obtain. The price will now be set to 600 Russian rubles, or USD 25, which is a relatively decent amount even for impoverished Gali residents. However, local ethnic Georgians who [...]
(apsadgil.info) TBILISI, DFWatch--A 29 year-old man has died under suspicious circumstances while in detention by separatist forces in breakaway Abkhazia. The man was detained earlier for trying to cross the administrative borderline between the breakaway republic and Georgia proper. The detainee’s death, which Sokhumi claims was a suicide, happened in a Russian military facility [...]
Shopping center at Rukhi. (Facebook.) TBILISI, DFWatch--Traffic resumed Tuesday across the Enguri bridge, the only crossing between the breakaway region Abkhazia and Georgia proper, locals told DFWatch. However, the bureaucratic hurdles bar most of Gali residents from crossing the conflict line. January 11, breakaway authorities declared a quarantine and unilaterally blocked passage on Enguri [...]
Temur Nadaraia. GALI, DFWatch--Sokhumi ponders prohibiting Abkhazians from travelling to Georgia proper for medical treatment and in search of other opportunities, because these developments undermine the breakaway region’s 'statehood'. "Those Abkhazians who go to Georgia and receive Georgian citizenship in exchange for loans or other social benefits are actually betraying their nation. I hope [...]
(apsadgil.info) TBILISI, DFWatch--Due to the closure of the Enguri checkpoint, students from breakaway Abkhazia's Gali district are unable pass their exams, which may result in their expulsion from the university. The problems come on the heel of a quarantine declared in early January by Georgia’s two breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia in order [...]
Razdakhan checkpoint in the Akhalgori district. (DFWatch.) TBILISI, DFWatch--Georgia's two breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Friday declared a quarantine in order to prevent the spread of the influenza virus H1N1 from Georgia proper. The quarantine will last for two months and not 20 days, as previously reported. In practice, a quarantine [...]
A part Georgian school in the village of Sida. (DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch--Breakaway Abkhazia is fastening its grip on Georgian schools in Gali, local teachers told DFWatch. Sokhumi suspects that the schools in this southern district with a predominantly ethnic Georgian population are violating a relatively recent policy to only allow Russian as the instructional [...]
GALI, DFWatch--The Georgian government has unofficially given Gali residents a green light for smuggling cigarettes, likely as part of the election campaign, according to locals DFWatch spoke to. They have received explicit messages from Georgian law enforcers, they said. "Everybody knows each other here, almost all law enforcement knows who smuggle cigarettes. For the past week, [...]
(DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch--Abkhazia has temporarily suspended the issuing of residence permits, an essential document needed by Gali residents in order to travel to Georgia proper. Breakaway authorities in Gali claim the reason is a technical problem with a printing machine, locals DFWatch spoke to explained. They were told that the printer had run out [...]
Enguri Bridge. (DFWatch.) TBILISI, DFWatch--The spread of the deadly brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) has caused such devastation of orchards that locals have been forced to return to illegal businesses, such as smuggling of goods, particularly cigarettes, from breakaway Abkhazia to Georgia proper. This illegal trade was rife a decade and half ago but [...]
(Gal Info.) GALI, DFWatch--On September 30, the de facto government of Abkhazia celebrates Victory Day, commemorating victory in the 1992-93 war. Among the planned events will be a procession by the initiative group "Our Heros' Way", which is mainly made up of Abkhaz youth. However, Georgian schools operating in the Gali district have also [...]
GALI, DFWatch–The deputy head of administration in Gali district has carried out an inspection of the schools in this predominantly Georgian district of breakaway Abkhazia and ordered principals not to let […]
(DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch–Young people are leaving their homes here in Gali, Abkhazia, to seek work opportunities abroad. In the last month, about 50 young people, most of them men, have left for Poland from one of the villages in the district, DFWatch was told by locals. […]
Awarding ‘Abkhaz passport’. In the center Temur Nadaraia, the head of Gali de facto administration. GALI, DFWatch–July 19, a ceremony was held here in Gali to award ‘Abkhaz passports’ to 139 residents who listened to an appeal by something called the Mirzakan Abkhaz Council. This was was only the latest event organized by the Council in an effort backed by Sokhumi […]
GALI, DFWatch–Sokhumi has resumed the issuing of ‘visas’ used by many Georgians to visit family and do business here in the Gali region in the southeast of the breakaway republic Abkhazia. The issuing of ‘visas’ was suspended about two months ago and locals in this predominantly […]
Gali center. GALI, DFWatch–In the past, robberies were rife here in Abkhazia’s easternmost region Gali, which is predominantly inhabited by ethnic Georgians. But recently, the crime situation has noticeably improved. DFWatch talked to people in Gali about how their situation has changed the last few years. […]
(Newscaucasus.com) GALI, DFWatch–As Abkhazia’s breakaway authorities are planning to end the use of specially issued ‘passports’ by the end of 2018, the Georgian minority here are facing new bureaucratic hurdles and further discrimination. […]
GALI, DFWatch–Sokhumi has suspended the issuing of ‘visas’ which is needed by many Georgians to visit family and do business here in the southern Gali region of the breakaway republic. […]
Abkhazia’s de facto president Raul Khajimba and Beslan Dbar (presidentofabkhazia.org) GALI, DFWatch–Breakaway authorities in Sokhumi plan to invite ethnic Abkhazians in the Middle East to come and settle in the southern Gali and northern Gagra districts. The scheme will shift the demographics in parts of the disputed territory where the Abkhazians are not […]
GALI, DFWatch–For almost a year and a half, people in Gali, in the south of breakaway Abkhazia, have been waiting for a new checkpoint to open on the administrative border line to Georgia proper, so far in vain. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–Long queues on the Enguri bridge has caused major interruptions for people wanting to cross the de facto border between Abkhazia and Georgia proper. Locals told DFWatch the immediate reason for the traffic jam is that only one out of four passport counters is operational on the Abkhaz side, […]
The Georgian school in the village Tagiloni was closed recently. (DFWatch.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Abkhazia’s breakaway authorities are planning to close seven Georgian schools in Gali, according to locals, who fear that such a decision, if taken, will cause the district to be depopulated. The school closures are being considered as part of an ‘optimization’ plan for the public schools in Abkhazia. […]
The hypermarket. (DFWatch.) ZUGDIDI, DFWatch–A five hectare shopping mall in Rukhi, only meters from the administrative border line (ABL) with breakaway Abkhazia, is doing good business, says its director David Machavariani, speaking to DFWatch. “Of course, the idea has justified itself, as [the mall] allows people to have more access to the services closer to their homes. […]
GALI, DFWatch–Abkhazia’s de facto authorities have not managed to open a much needed heart clinic in Sokhumi due to the lack of qualified medical staff, a Georgian cardiologist who was involved in the process told DFWatch. […]
GALI, DFWatch–After requiring people to obtain a residency permit which costs almost USD 200, breakaway Abkhazia now threatens to cut off pensions and teachers’ salaries of those who don’t comply. Locals in the Gali region consider the new regulation a form of blackmail. […]
GALI, DFWatch–Four-wheel horse carts (‘tachkas’) are still the main means of transport for crossing the Enguri Bridge, which separates breakaway Abkhazia from Georgia proper. However, recently three ‘marshrutkas’ have started competing for this profitable business, […]
სოფელ სიდას სკოლა. GALI, DFWatch–Here in Gali, southeastern Abkhazia, the school teachers are the only group of ethnic Georgians that the breakaway authorities don’t demand formal documents from in order to be allowed to work, several teachers told DFWatch. […]
აფხაზური “ვიზა” (DFWatch). Gali, DFWatch–The de facto authorities in Abkhazia are developing new ways to discriminate against the ethnic Georgian population in the region’s southeast Gali district. “We are absolutely deprived of any civil rights. […]
(Photo by Dominik K. Cagara.) GALI, DFWatch–Georgian hazelnut farmer in Abkhazia canceled this year’s harvest after de facto authorities failed to hand out vital pesticide to battle a bug. The bug has already ravaged farms in Western Georgia but the damage is even worse in the breakaway region […]
The Georgian school in the village Tagiloni, 9 km from Gali, which was closed recently. (DFWatch.) GALI, DFWatch–Breakaway authorities in Abkhazia have closed a public school in the region’s southern district which has a predominantly ethnic Georgian population. De facto authorities told school principals in Gali on Wednesday that the school in Tagiloni, a the village near Gali, […]
Only the main checkpoint on the Enguri river will be operational. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The newly elected de facto president of the breakaway region Abkhazia wants to close five out of a total of six ’official’ checkpoints that divide Abkhazia from Georgia proper. According to Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Abkhazia’s new president, […]
Raul Khajimba. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The new de facto rulers of Abkhazia are preparing to prevent Georgians with dual citizenship from voting in the election planned for August 24. “25-26 thousand people are not eligible to vote in the […]
