Guram Gabiskiria

Who was Guram Gabiskiria?

Guram Gabiskiria was a Mayor of Sukhumi who was murdered by Abkhaz separatists during the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia in 1993.

Guram Gabiskiria was born on 2 March 1947 in Sukhumi, Georgia. Gabiskia graduated from the State University of M. Gorki with a degree in history but excelled as a soccer player. He played for the Dinamo Sukhumi in the late 1960s and later continued his career in Stavropol, Minsk and Kislovodsk before joining CSKA. In 1972, he became a soccer referee of republican level and two years later upgraded himself to the union level soccer referee. As a result of political tensions in the USSR in 1989 all the Georgian teams except for Dinamo Sukhumi left the Soviet championship. Gabiskiria helped to create Sukhumi-based Tskhumi soccer club where he served as a president. In 1990 He was a candidate in the elections for the parliament of Abkhazian Autonomous Republic but gave up his claims in favour of Tamaz Nadareishvili.

Gabiskiria became a mayor of Sukhumi in 1992 and joined the legitimate Council of Ministers and the Council of Self-Defense of Abkhazian Autonomous Republic during the Georgian-Abkhazian War in 1993. When the city of Sukhumi fell to the Russian-supported separatists on 27 September 1993, Gabiskiria along with other authorities from the legitimate Government of Abkhazian Autonomous Republic refused to leave the besieged city and was captured by Abkhaz militants and North Caucasian mercenaries. Based on video materials, Human rights documents and witness accounts of the event, G. Gabiskiria, Z. Shartava, R. Eshba and other members of the government were dragged outside of the parliament building and forced to knee by the Abkhaz/North Caucasian militants. Gabiskiria refused to do so by replying in Russian: “Never in my life!”