Irakli Alasania (Georgian: ირაკლი ალასანია) (born December 21, 1973) is a Georgian politician and former diplomat. He was Georgia’s Ambassador to the United Nations from September 11, 2006, until December 4, 2008. His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government of Abkhazia(-in-exile) and the President of Georgia’s aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks. Soon after his resignation, Alasania withdrew into opposition to the Mikheil Saakashvili administration, setting up the Our Georgia – Free Democrats party in July 2009.
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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 Sokhumi 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 the Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia.
On September 28, 2004, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed Alasania as chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhazian government-in-exile. On February 15, 2005, Saakashvili also made him his aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace talks, a move that was initially opposed by the Abkhaz secessionist leadership, but later accepted under 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]
Alasania resigned his position as Georgia's Permanent Representative at the U.N. on December 4, 2008. JONDO
On 26 December 2008, several days after his return to Georgia, Alasania announced that he was in talks with Georgian opposition and would actively enter Georgian politics. Alasania criticized the government’s handling of recent events, blaming it for "falling into a Russian trap" (a reference to the August 2008 war with Russia). Alasania also called for the creation of strong and transparent democratic institutions. In a subsequent interview on January 25, Alasania called for Saakashvili's resignation and early presidential elections.[3][4]
On February 16, 2009, Alasania held a press conference, naming members of his group and declared his vision for Georgia's political and economic future. Among people appearing with him as supporters were several former ambassadors including Levan Mikeladze, a former Georgian ambassador to the U.S and the OSCE as well as Switzerland and UN missions in Geneva, Victor Dolidze, who recently quit his post as envoy to the OSCE and Aleksi Petriashvili, Georgia’s former ambassador to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The lawyer Shalva Shavgulidze was also named as a member of Alasania's team. Representatives from most of Georgian opposition parties attended the presentation; most of them expressed their interest in cooperating with Alasania's newly formed party.[5] Two days after the announcements were made Gia Karkarashvili, former Minister of Defense during the War in Abkhazia, expressed his full support for Alasania's ideas.
On February 23, 2009, Alasania's team joined the Republican and New Rights parties in an alliance called "The Alliance for Georgia". Alasania became the alliance's chairman, while Davit Usupashvili of the Republican Party and Davit Gamkrelidze of the New Rights became co-chairmen. The alliance called on President Saakashvili to agree within next ten days to allow the voters decide whether they wanted early presidential elections through a nation-wide referendum.[6]
Alasania founded the political party Our Georgia – Free Democrats — as part of the Alliance for Georgia — on 16 July 2009.[7] In September 2009, the Alliance announced that Alasania would run for Tbilisi mayor’s post in local elections expected to take place on May 30, 2010.[8]