In Georgia, residents of Gonio resort prepare lawsuits to Supreme Court hoping to regain lands confiscated by authorities

At present, only 8 people of 271 families of the inhabitants of Gonio village of Khelvachauri District of Autonomous Republic of Adzharia of Georgia, whose lands, given to them in private ownership by the authorities' decision several years ago, have been seized, are at litigation with the authorities.

They lost the case in the local court and in the Court of Appeal in Kutaisi city. Now they are preparing a lawsuit to the Supreme Court of Georgia, and then they are going to lodge a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Gonio village is located on the Black Sea coast near Batumi city, 10 kilometres from the border with Turkey.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Enver Iremadze, a resident of Gonio village, that during the USSR times these lands used to belong to the citrus Soviet farm. All members of 271 families have been working for this Soviet farm for 50-60 years. Many of them, including Enver Iremadze, lived in the farm-owned apartment buildings, but they had no lands. After the collapse of the USSR a land reform began throughout entire Georgia, but Aslan Abashidze, the leader of the Adzharia Autonomy, refused to carry it out.

"Saakashvili won the election of 2008, but we all lost. As it turned out, on January 5, 2008, the decision of the local authorities the map of agricultural properties was considered wrong, and we were told that everything should be done anew. On January 25 I did it all anew, corrected errors, and I was given a document that this land belongs to me forever. After this I duly paid the tax on land and wanted to build a house. I took all the permits and conclusions of the respective services, which local authorities required, but it turned out that according to the new law we had no rights to build a house, and these lands no longer belonged to us," says Enver Iremadze.

He and other residents of Gonio with the petition of support approached local human rights organizations, political parties, international organizations, and the US Embassy, the Consular Agencies of Turkey and Iran, the EU representation, but nobody yet provided support.

Representatives of the local authorities refused to comment on the situation to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.