2002 in Georgia (country)

Incumbents

• President of Georgia: Eduard Shevardnadze
• State Minister: Avtandil Jorbenadze
• Chairperson of the Parliament: Nino Burjanadze

Events

• January 15 – Georgian police forces under the personal supervision of Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili launch the first phase of anti-criminal operation in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia’s border with Chechnya.
• March 2 – Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia helds parliamentary election, not recognized by the international community as legal.
• April 2 – Georgia agrees to withdraw its Defense Ministry troops from Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia more or less under the control of Georgia.
• April 25 – A magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes Georgia’s capital Tbilisi killing at least five and damaging parts of the city’s historical center.
• May 27 – The United States-sponsored Train-and-Equip program launched in the Georgian armed forces.
• June 2 – Georgia helds the second local self-governance elections.
• August 19 – President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze announces the start of an all-out “anti-criminal and counterterrorist operation” in the Pankisi Gorge.
• August 23 – Russian fighter jets bomb the Georgian villages bordering Chechnya, killing one and injuring several civilians; the OSCE Observers Mission to Georgia officially confirms the fact, but the Russian authorities reject it.
• October 14 – President Shevardnadze and Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II sign a constitutional agreement between the state and the Georgian Orthodox Church at the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta.
• November 22 – President Shevardnadze makes an official bid for NATO accession at the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council session in Prague.
• December 3 – Georgia ratifies the construction of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline.

Deaths

• February 25 – Nugzar Sajaia, Georgian National Security Council secretary (born 1942); suicide.
• May 19 – Otar Lordkipanidze, archaeologist and anthropologist (born 1930), natural causes.
• December 19 – Kote Makharadze, a popular actor and sportscaster (born 1925); cerebrovascular disease.
• November 20 – Kakhi Asatiani, businessman and former soccer star (born 1947); assassinated.

References

• Timeline 2002. Civil Georgia. Accessed on February 11, 2008.