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325:. Early on January 25, 1995, Karkarashvili and his former deputy Major-General Paata Datuashvili were assaulted by three masked gunmen near the academy dormitory in Moscow. Datuashvili was killed on the spot. Karkarashvili – heavily wounded in head – survived, but was permanently disabled and left in wheelchair. The most popular explanation of the attack was that it was ordered by those interested in elimination of key witnesses of the 1991 coup and the Abkhaz war.
269:. His televised address broadcast (in Russian) by the local Sukhumi channel on August 25, 1992, in which warned the secessionist leaders that “if 100,000 Georgians die, then all 97,000 on your side will be killed” sparked much controversy. His words have been cited in different forms in different sources and received by the Abkhaz side as a threat to cleanse the region of its Abkhaz populace. Years later, in a February 2009 interview to a Tbilisi-based
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National Guard detachment into
Abkhazia in a show of force to deter secessionist sentiments in the area. When fighting resumed in South Ossetia in May 1992, Karkarashvili was put in command of Georgian forces which recovered several ethnic Georgian villages, winning to its 26-year-old commander the rank of major-general. He soon resigned, citing dissatisfaction with Shevardnadze's acceptance of Russian-proposed terms of the peace settlement.
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292:’s command took that town in a surprise attack, repulsing Karkarashvili's hastily organized counterattack. The battle took life of Karkarashvili's younger brother Gocha. Karkarashvili was able to defend Sukhumi until September 1993, when the beleaguered Georgian troops – now suffering in-fighting between rivaling factions – retreated from much of Abkhazia.
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made him
Minister of Defense, partly for his desire to sideline Tengiz Kitovani, the self-minded field commander and Karkarashvili's predecessor as minister. Karkarashvili attempted to make the Georgian military more integrated and disciplined. He named the Russian and Israeli armies to be models on which to build the Georgian military.
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During the war in
Abkhazia, the young general gained reputation of an energetic and dynamic commander, for which he was popular with the military. He was frequently critical of Shevardnadze's policies and displayed a tendency to independent decision-making. Nevertheless, in May 1993, Shevardnadze
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and headed a storm of the government's building which ended in
Gamsakhurdia's flight from Tbilisi in January 1992. Karkarashvili then commanded a force of the post-coup regime – the Military Council – which operated against Gamsakhurdia's supporters in western Georgia and commanded a march of the
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as an alleged sympathizer with the coup plot. Karkarashvili rejected any links with the mutiny and released video footage showing him talking with the certain
Melikidze who allegedly was trying to persuade him to take part in the mutiny. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs expressed its
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From
October to November 1993, Karkarashvili took command of the government forces in a brief civil war reincited by Gamsakhurdia's attempt to regain power. In February 1994, he resigned his position in the government, citing Shevardnadze's decision to bring Georgia into the
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between
Georgia and Russia. He produced a report in which he accused the Georgian government for having mismanaged military operations. In February 2009, he joined a political group of Irakli Alasania, Georgia's former UN envoy, who withdrew into opposition to President
277:, who is now prime minister of Abkhazia, was present there when my address was being recorded and he can confirm my words,” he added, explaining that Ankvab was arrested by the Georgian forces, but soon released upon his own instruction.
234:, Afghanistan, and Georgia until January 1991 when he resigned as a captain and recruited the Georgian deserters from the Soviet army into the paramilitary unit Tetri Artsivi ("White Eagle") which was soon integrated into the
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party ticket. As a member of pro-Shevardnadze election bloc, Karkarashvili ran for the parliament again in
November 2003. The protests over the elections resulted in Shevardnadze's resignation in the
426:, 0:14—0:25: я могу сразу заверить этим сепаратистам, что если из наших численности погибнут сто тысяч грузинов, то из ваших погибнут все девяносто семь тясячи, которые будут поддерживать...
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to state security ministry. He was later implicated in an embezzlement scandal and accused of supplying classified military information to the Abkhaz and
Russian commanders during the war.
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238:. Karkarashvili became commander of the Guard in Tbilisi. He took part in fighting against the South Ossetian militias in the early months of 1991 and was promoted to colonel.
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In August 1992, the rising tensions in
Abkhazia escalated into armed conflict. Karkarashvili was put in command of the Georgian troops in the regional capital
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Transition: Events and Issues in the Former Soviet Union and East-Central and South Eastern Europe, v. 1, nos. 1–4: 64. Open Media Research Institute, 1995
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gratitude to Karkarashvili for information provided by him as it helped to arrest Melikidze and prevent an assassination attempt on Interior Minister
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420:, 2:53—3:01: я могу сразу заверить этим сепаратистам, что е... численности погибнут сто тысяч грузинов, то из ваших погибнут все девяносто семь;
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273:, Karkarashvili claimed that the televised address was edited to make it appear he threatened to destroy the Abkhaz. “By the way
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Gia Karkarashvili: if we had fought well, our tanks would be at the Roki Tunnel, we would not have seen Russian tanks at Igoeti
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In May 2009, Karkarashvili's name was implicated by the retired officer Gia Ghvaladze, arrested in connection with the
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in the 1990s. A gunshot wound received in the 1995 attack in Moscow left him severely disabled. He was a member of the
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captain, he was a high-profile military commander during the
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Karkarashvili came again to public attention after the
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531:. Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. May 5, 2009
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