Tbilisi’s 1991-1992 War: A Ruthless Conflict That Had To Be Fought, Veterans Agree

Even today, it is a conflict that can divide Georgians: From December 22, 1991 to January 6, 1992, brutal, chaotic fighting ripped through downtown Tbilisi over whether Georgia’s first post-Soviet president, the nationalist Zviad Gamasakhurdia, should be allowed to rule as a democratically elected leader or compelled to resign as a dictator-in-the-making. The Tbilisi violence, which claimed an estimated 90 to 200 lives, ended when Gamsakhurdia fled his parliament bunker and the country on January 6, 1992, but the larger conflict would rage until the mid-1990s. Tbilisi correspondent Zviad Mchedlishvili spoke with two veterans – one a Gamskhurdia supporter, the other an opposition Mkhedrioni (Horsemen) fighter -- who explained why they believe the 1991-1992 war in Tbilisi was a fight that could not be avoided.