ReportageThe events in Ukraine revive the painful memory of another war, that which opposed Russia to Georgia in 2008. In Tbilisi, the ruling party, led by a billionaire, is taken to task for its complacency towards Moscow.
In the Georgian village of Ergneti, located on the outskirts of the separatist region of South Ossetia, the very mention of the word “Ukraine” brings tears to tears. The dark memories of another war, between Russia and Georgia, in August 2008, come back to mind. This violent conflict, which arose after an application for NATO membership, lasted only a few days. But it was enough to ratify the creation of two territories recognized by Russia alone, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, amputating 20% of Georgian territory.
“You have to have been through a war to really understand what Ukrainians are feeling today,” sighs Makvala Tchlatchidze, 74. Like many Georgians, this farmer from Ergneti is worried that her country could become Moscow’s next target. “War can break out again here”, she said, tears in her eyes.
Makvala Tchlatchidze remembers, ” like it was yesterday “, of August 7, 2008, the day she had to leave her home and her fields before the Russian bombs fell. It was not until October of the same year that she finally returned to Ergneti. Of his house, only four walls remained. ” They [la milice des séparatistes, soutenue et formée par l’armée russe] had burned everything: houses, vineyards, fruit trees, everything. Above all, I regret our 3,000 pounds which we held so dear, me and my late husband. I couldn’t save a piece of fabric from my house,” slips the lady with gray hair, dressed in an old sweater of the same color.
“Fear that the war will repeat itself”
Since that disastrous summer of 2008, part of his fields have been on the other side of the demarcation line, drawn by barbed wire laid and watched by Russian soldiers. However, long before the war, her children had been educated in South Ossetia. She herself went there to do her shopping at the market. But, since the conflict, Makvala Tchlatchidze has had no news of his friends who remained in this region, which has come under Russian control. Since then, too, the Russians have never stopped encroaching on Georgian territory, advancing the barbed wire and their lookout posts. “I keep worrying about the repeat of the war here, says the old lady. That’s why I only rebuilt a small part of my house. »
All along the road that leads from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, located not far from the border, the prefabricated houses hastily built in 2008 still shelter refugees from Ossetia. In one of the agglomerations, called “the displaced people of Karaleti”, few are those who agree to speak, as the events in Ukraine are reopening the badly healed wounds of the time. “A lot of people, myself included, cannot bear the images of ruins and shelling coming from Ukraine. I listen to the news without looking at the pictures,” explains Dali Basishvili. At 64, this woman with big blue eyes lives with her husband in a prefab, consisting of a simple living room and two bedrooms.
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