Mzia Kutivadze

In summer of 1989, the government decided to liberate Tina as positive step from their side. Tina spent 6 years in colony. Of course it was great joy for everyone but at the same time we had no idea about the fate of the boys, whether they were shot or not. We got no official announcement about it. Natela did her best to get information but in vain. At the same time there were appeal procedures in Moscow. The part of the society considered that they should help these boys and they made a list of supporters, but it happened so, that many of them later refused to be in the list of supporters. We can do nothing, it happens so sometimes. After seven or eight years later Natela got announcement about the fact that Gega was shot. He was shot on the same year when the verdict was passed. But unfortunately, we had no information about it. • How do you think, why they hid this fact from you? • I think that they tried to avoid extra agiotage. As you know people were actively involved in national movements and they were struggling against communists’ regime on this purpose. So it would be extra headache for them. After this, it was in 1990s, someone got in touch with Natela and took her somewhere and showed her cemetery, where Gega was buried. But later they found out that it was mistake and tis cemetery belonged to brothers - Iverielebi. As for me, I had no interest or wish just to make any enquiry in this field any more. • Did Tina meet Gega when he was wounded? • No, unfortunately they just met each other during trial. Now it is not surprising.

• All this happened in this way, wife and husband, Tina – my sister and her husband, Gega Kbakhidze. • How old were they then? • Tina was 18, as for Gega, he was probably 25, I don’t remember well. So they devised a plan about how to hijack plane and then land in Turkey. From Turkey they planned to fly somewhere farther. They used wedding just to camouflage the real purpose and leave the country without extra checking. As for wedding itself was real, they really got married but they used it as a good occasion. They considered that in this way all of them (brides-man and all their friends who were in wedding party) would have no problem to leave the border. So, among them were: Tina, Gega, brothers Iverielebi, Tabidze George, Soso, David Mikaberidze and the priest Chikhladze. I want to admit the fact that the priest wasn’t there at all, but …. By the way I knew only Gega from all these people and Soso just from distance. All this terrible fact happened with the help of one young girl, who worked there. They made friends with her and then due to her naivety, she passed them without checking. Then everything what happened in the plane I knew from the retellings of my sister, from other relatives or itself from eyewitnesses. As for newspapers and TV-s, everyone knows how and what was written and transmitted. It somehow helped to form public opinion. If we look back nowadays, we can consider this terrible fact as great mistake. All these youngsters were gifted and interesting people, who wanted to show their protest in this way and thus leave the country. But our family never approved this step and it seems to us that people a little bit idealized everything around this fact.