People in Svaneti demand visit of officials regarding the problem of towers
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, August 21
On August 20, the population of Ushguli blocked the entrance to the village for several hours. Residents are demanding the visit of representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation in Ushguli.
Residents of Ushguli held their first protest on August 12 and gave government officials a one-week deadline to arrive in Ushguli and familiarize themselves with the situation, they demand is saving the towers.
Mindia Charkseliani, one of the protesters said that there has been no response from government officials so far: ”The governor promised that representatives of the relevant agencies would come to Ushguli and get acquainted with the difficult situation regarding the towers located in Ushguli. However, no one has appeared so far.“
According to the locals, the cracks in the towers are increasing day by day, making it dangerous not only for historic buildings, but also for people moving here.
At the end of July, the tower of the Charkselians collapsed in the village of Murkmeli in Ushguli community. According to Charkseliani, the tower had been damaged for a long time, but its rehabilitation process was delayed, causing it to collapse.
Nika Antidze, director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Agency, says that despite great respect for the Ushguli people, he cannot share their protest that the problems of Svaneti's cultural heritage sites are not being properly addressed:
“As many projects as now are carried in Svaneti have never been implemented. The comments that monuments are being restored in the wrong way is not true, first of all, because it’s the non-professionals that are talking about it, and secondly, every year we’ll face the same problem and the towers will collapse unless the owners take care of the restored monuments themselves,” claims Antidze.
He considers talks about not paying proper attention to be unfair, since there have been 80 monuments restored in four years, this year’s goal is 21 and 30 more projects are being currently planned along with the rehabilitation of village Chazhashi in parallel with doing emergency work.
Antidze considers the gain of comprehensive information on Svaneti monuments to be a huge achievement – as reported by him four communities are fully covered, inventories and comparisons with Soviet lists have been conducted and the expedition has just finished its work. He announces that next year we will have a full study of Svaneti monuments.
He explained that there is not enough human resources to work on all 160 monuments at the same time but stressed out the fact that they are working intensively. The reason why he doesn’t go to Ushguli as he explained is hosting guests of international level.
A disaster destroyed part of the above-mentioned building in Murmkuli, including a residential building near the Charkselian tower in the late 80s. Part of this tower collapsed for the first time approximately 10 years ago.
According to Charkseliani, Ushguli residents will discuss plans and if their demand is not met in time, they will take radical measures.
