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Further Reading

National Guard

National Guard has a department status within the structure of the Ministry of Defense. Military personnel of the National Guard, which accounts up to 2OOO soldiers Is divided into singular military units and dislocated throughout different regions of Georgia. Its main task is a quick and effective response to the emergency situations, which may appear in the country.

Almost from its inception, the National Guard became directly involved in Georgian politics. The National Guards emerged in 1989. At that time there was a need for national armed forces capable of preventing destabilisation and ethnic conflicts in the country. The conflict in Samachablo (South Ossetia) especially stimulated the creation of the first national military units. A lot of armed groups spontaneously headed to Samachablo to defend this region. They needed accommodation, armaments, training and elementary maintenance. An organisational structure had to be created in order to solve all these problems. Several military units - such as the Georgian Shevardeni Legion, Tbiliseli, Chito-Gvrito - were formed at that time. The first unit of the National Guards originated at the end of 1989 - its HQ was situated in the Gldani district police station.

In 1990 parliament the first national government set up a defence committee chaired by Tengiz Kitovani which passed a resolution on the creation of National Guards - Internal Troops. The resolution was enforced in December the same year. A unit of the Soviet internal troops, the "8th Regiment", was stationed in Georgia, particularly in Tbilisi, at that time. It was an illustration of the punitive apparatus of the totalitarian regime. The main missions of the regiment were to prevent public disorder and guard prisons/colonies. The Supreme Council of Georgia resolved to deprive the unit of its missions and, therefore, the resultant vacuum should have been filled by national forces. Preference was given to the National Guards and the above two missions were included into its regulations.

Most of the commanders of the units were civilian enthusiasts. The recruitment of privates was put on the agenda afterwards. The draft into the National Guards began in February 1991. In April the process was over and all the units were fully manned (just this date is regarded as the birthday of the Georgian Armed Forces).

By 1992 repeated human rights offenses against Gamsakhurdia supporters brought calls to change this role. At the same time, the political rivalry between Ioseliani and Kitovani, the leaders of the Mkhedrioni (horsemen) and the National Guard, respectively, became one of the key conflicts in the Georgian government hierarchy, and many political parties continued to retain private armies in the guise of armed bodyguards or security teams. Discipline problems in the ranks of both the National Guard and the Mkhedrioni and their ineffectiveness as fighting forces led the Georgian government to plan for a professional army. In April 1992, the State Council adopted a resolution to form a unified armed force of up to 20,000 soldiers.

At the time the government announced its plans for a professional army, however, neither existing military group had sufficient internal discipline to carry out major restructuring. Efforts to disband the National Guard and Mkhedrioni were delayed by continued violence in western Georgia, by an attempted coup in Tbilisi by Gamsakhurdia supporters, and by the political ambitions of Kitovani and Ioseliani. In May 1992, Kitovani was designated minister of defense in an effort to bring the National Guard under central control. Instead, during the following year Kitovani turned his position into a power center rivaling Shevardnadze's. In May 1993, Shevardnadze induced Kitovani and Ioseliani to resign from their powerful positions on the Council for National Security and Defense, depriving both men of influence over national security policy and enhancing the stature of the head of government.

Shevardnadze complained in early 1993 that a unified army had still not been created. In May the National Guard was abolished as a separate force, and individual distinguished units received guard status. In the second half of 1993, however, outside threats to national security caused Shevardnadze to rely once again on Ioseliani's paramilitary Mkhedrioni, delaying consolidation of a national military force. In September Shevardnadze's control over the military improved when parliament declared a two-month state of emergency that had the effect of weakening the Mkhedrioni.

The National Guards became a part of the MoD structure with the status of a MoD main department in 1994. Before that time, it had been an independent body.

Defence Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said at a news conference on 20 February 2004 that the reform in the National Guard would continue at the same pace as in the past. Active components of the National Guard would be subordinated to the ground troops. Under the reform plan, the National Guard has been tasked with preparing reservists. Bezhuashvili has said that several training bases will be passed over to the National Guard in order to ensure full training of the reservists. The defence minister has said that the functions and goals of the units consisting of local residents in Khevsureti and Barisakho, established by the National Guard, will be reviewed, but the units will continue to operate