Irakli Alasania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irakli Alasania (Georgian: ირაკლი ალასანია) (born December 21, 1973) is a Georgian politician and diplomat. He has been Georgia’s Ambassador to the United Nations since September 11, 2006. His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government of Abkhazia(-in-exile) and the President of Georgia’s aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Diplomatic service 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Irakli Alasania was born in Batumi, Adjara. His father was General Mamia Alasania who was killed together with other Georgian politicians upon the fall of Sukhumi to the Abkhaz separatist forces on September 27, 1993. Irakli Alasania graduated from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in international law in 1995. Simultaneously he also took courses at the Georgian Academy of Security from 1994 to 1996. He worked for the Ministry of State Security of Georgia from 1994 to 1998, and was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in October 2001. He then served as deputy Minister of State Security from February 2002 to February 2004, and deputy Minister of Defense from March 2004 until July 2004, when he was moved to serve as an Assistant Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia.

[edit] Diplomatic service

In October 2004, Alasania became the chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhazian government-in-exile. Simultaneously, on February 15, 2005, he was made by the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili his aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace talks, a move that was initially opposed by the Abkhaz secessionist leadership, but later accepted under the pressure from the U.N. mission (UNOMIG). During this tenure, Alasania succeeding in establishing good ties with several Abkhaz politicians and was instrumental in resuming the Georgian-Abkhaz Coordination Council, a tool for direct talks between the two sides, in March 2006. That month, however, he was appointed as Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the U.N., a decision which triggered some controversy, with critics saying that sidelining Alasania from the Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations would hinder the positive momentum recently observed in the process.^[1]

Alasania, however, has retained his position of the President’s special envoy for the Abkhazia issues. In this capacity, he paid a surprise and largely unpublicized visit to Sukhumi on May 12, 2008. The move came amid the stalemate in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks and increasing Russian-Georgian tensions over Abkhazia.^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Irakli Alasania biography, Georgian Embassy to the U.N. Retrieved on May 14, 2008.