Victims of natural disaster in the mountainous regions of Georgia were settled in the villages of Tsalka municipality in 1990s. The long process of internal migration was accompanied with the collapse of the USSR, civil war and conflicts in Georgia. At that time, local population, majority of which were Greeks, sold or abandoned their properties and moved to Greece or other European states. The Ministry of IDPs from Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia was instructed to purchase the abandoned houses for eco-migrants in late 1990s.

After 1990s hundreds of victims of natural disaster from Upper Svaneti and other mountainous regions were settled in Tsalka. The state policy aimed to improve living conditions of eco-migrants and to support development of Tsalka district. Afterwards, Georgian kindergartens and secondary schools were opened in Tsalka and nearby villages. However, lately, big part of local population, who had left for the European states, decided to return back to Georgia because of global economic crisis.

“The government did not keep its promise and did not assist us. They did not purchase houses for us. Big part of houses purchased in 2006-2007 is not yet registered on new owners. It is economic crisis in Greece and Russia, so Greek people who migrated there now come back. I have lived in the house of Greek family since 2005. The owner demands me to leave his house now. He wants to arrive here at least once a year on holiday. He gave me one month to leave the house,” deputy from Sameba village Vazha Shavadze said.
The eco-migrants say similar incidents often occur in Tsalka. Each house purchased from Greek families by the state are registered on the Ministry of Accommodation but eco-migrant families still cannot register them. Kemal Gomadze from Artsivani village in Tsalka district said that former owners still manage to register sold houses online because the Ministry does not hold proper documents on the properties. “The properties registered according to old methods are not seen in the data base. Maybe, the information is stored somewhere on the shelves. We had arranged everything and paid part of property prices: for example, if the house cost 4 000 USD the state used to pay 2 000 or 3 000 USD of it and we paid the rest of it. However, this information is nowhere found now.”

Tsalka district administration representatives say the problem was caused by technical mistakes of the Civil Registration Agency and it can be eradicated soon.

Deputy district governor Amiran Iremadze (he deceased a few days after this interview – G. J.) said there are 571 houses in Tsalka district, which need registration; among them only about five houses are disputable. “The Ministry of Accommodations purchased the houses from former owners. Currently, eco-migrants live there. I do not think it will be a problem to legalize properties in Tsalka. There were cases of double-registration when former owners of the houses returned to Georgia, CRA made a mistake and registered the sold houses back to their names. We had only a few similar cases.”

Representatives of the Department on the Issues of Eco-Migrants at the Ministry of IDPs from Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia said new project on repeated measurement of the houses and plots will start in the summer of 2015. So, all properties purchased by the state will be re-registered. The registration will finish in November and after the process is over the houses will be assigned to eco-migrants.

Unemployment is another major problem for eco-migrants. “90-95% of local population is unemployed. No agricultural branch is developed in Tsalka. There is a water-reservoir in Tsalka which operates KhramHES. Several years ago the territory was emptied; we planted potatoes but after a heavy rain the water-reservoir flood and destroyed plots. We had purchased fertilizers with loans but after this flood we could not even cover the debts,” Vazha Shavadze said.

Otar Kharabadze, who resettled in Artsivani village from Adjara in 2003, said that eco-migrants do not have plots to grow products enough for their families either. “We urge the government to send agriculture specialist here and evaluate situation on the place. The village does not have even one-hectare lawn to mow grass. We do not ask for luxurious life but we need land enough to keep our families. Some villages have mow-lawns of 200-300 hectares. But our 1 hectare lawn is not worth mowing. We cannot keep even three cows in a family because there is no grass and have to rent everything. For all these problems we have to take loans at banks and you know how difficult it is to pay debts. Besides, we do not know when we are evicted from houses. Let them pay attention to us, we are also citizens of this country and have nowhere to go.”

Seven villages of Tsalka district do not have cemetery either. Eco-migrants from Adjara are prohibited to bury their neighbors in the Greek cemetery [because of religious issue] and have to bury the body in Adjara. “Sometimes snow in Adjara reaches 2-3 meters. It is impossible to take and bury a dead person in similar weather. We should have 2-3 hectares of land to arrange a cemetery there,” one of the eco-migrants said.

Tsalka district deputy governor Amiran Iremadze said they negotiate with the Ministry of Economics about a land for new cemetery in the district and soon villages will have it.

Giorgi Janelidze