Gela Charkviani

Gela Charkviani, July 17, 1997

Gela Charkviani (Georgian: გელა ჩარკვიანი, Russian: Гела Чарквиани) is Georgian diplomat, educator and television personality.

Gela Charkviani was born in Tbilisi in 1939 into the family of Candide Charkviani, a leader of the Georgian Communist Party who had been accused in the Mingrelian Affair under Joseph Stalin, and his ophthalmologist wife Tamar Jaoshvili. He studied architecture at the Georgian Polytecnic University and eventually graduated from the Chavchavadze Institute of Foreign Languages. Gela Charkviani's post-graduate studies included a semester at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1970, a period regarded as the peak of the Youth Revolution in the United States. The time spent at Ann Arbour, in Charkviani's opinion, has caused a major shift in his worldview.^[1]

For 25 years thereafter Gela Charkviani taught English and later on, Sociology at the Chavchavadze Foreign Languages Institute and Tbilisi State University. From 1976 to 1994 he anchored the Georgian TV's monthly Globe program featuring profiles of the world nations. His five-part documentary Georgians in the Kremlin was aired by Rustavi-2 TV in September/October 2004.^[2]

From 1984 to 1992 Gela Charkviani was Vice-President of the Georgian Society for Cultural Relations.^[3]

From 1992 to 2003 Charkviani was Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to President Eduard Shevardnadze.^[4]

In 2005 President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed him his spokesperson and in 2006 Ambassador of Georgia to the UK and Ireland.^[5] He retired from diplomatic service in September 2011.

Of the many interests he has pursued for pleasure and relaxation music has remained central through Charkviani's life. A CD of his Piano Miniatures was released in 2004, followed in 2006 by that of his early work: a musical Nargiza and the Nonstop Luxury Express (1974).^[6] Charkviani's latest work is Irakliana - a triptych of three piano suites featuring tunes by his late son Irakli. His literary efforts include a modern Georgian language translation of Shakespeare's King Lear. The work was commissioned by the internationally acclaimed Georgian theater director Robert Sturua. The production had a successful run at the Rustaveli Drama Theater in Tbilisi in 1980s and 90s. It was also performed at various venues abroad.

In the summer of 2008 a book of texts of some of Charkviani's public appearances in his various capacities over the eleven-year period from 1997 to 2008 was released (in English). The book touches upon a considerable variety of issues widely regarded as significant for the newly independent nations of Eurasia and provides vital clues for today's state of affairs in the region.

Charkviani's awards include Order of Honour (1998), Presidential Order of Excellence (2011) and Victory Order of St.George (2013).^[7]

Gela's son Irakli Charkviani was an influential Georgian musician and writer.

References

Charkviani, G (2008), Lectures, Speeches and a Toast, Tbilisi, Georgia