Mzia Kutivadze

* 1954

  • 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.

  • • How many of them were sentenced to death? • All of them were sentenced to death besides Tina. Chikhladze, brothers Iveriels and Gega were sentenced to death, as for David Mikadze committed suicide in the plane and Tabidze was perished during shooting in the plane. • How much was sentenced to Tina? • Tina was sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment. • How long did she spend in prison? • She was in prison for 6 years. Then she was taken to colony. Everyone treated her with tolerance taking into consideration her condition. She herself is calm, quiet person and she was given solitary cell. As they knew that she was painting and she was given a box of paints, just to make her busy and thus to help her to balance her emotional situation. Tamar, her mother, did her best, even quarreled and had hysterics in colony just to make sure that good specialists would cure Tina if she had even toothache, because as we know they had terrible doctors in colony. Everyone knew that there mustn’t be any kind of problems for Tina in prison. Then it happened so that during this period national-liberation movement began to activate and 9th of April , 1989 took place. People came out with slogans and demanded to liberate Tina. Then Vazha Lortkipanidze, my husband’s class-mate and the head of the department of ideology in “CK” (Central Committee), called us and directed to school N 55. The wife of one of the killed boys in plane worked at this school and he advised us to ask her if she wouldn’t be against the liberation of Tina. But when she learned who I was, she got very angry and I left the room without asking anything. I was very sorry for her.

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Tbilisi, 30.05.2013

    (audio)
    délka: 35:12
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

„These guys were very young and dead penalty was not fair decision“

681208.jpg (historic)
Mzia Kutivadze

Born in Tbilisi, 13 July 1954; after finishing the school she entered Tbilisi State University at the Faculty of Journalism. In 1978 she started to work at Georgian TV and Radio Corporation as a head of Russian Information Service; After 15 years she moved to work as a head of Press Service at the Parliament of Georgia; Later she returned at radio until 2001.In 2006 Mzia established publishing house „GAMS-print“ that translates and publishes modern foreign literature. Morover, she is a head of the fund „Dialogue between Art and Cultures“ Her fund organized Festival of Russian Cinema in Tbilisi, established the price of Sopiko Chiaureli, opened sculptures of Parajanov and Pirosmani in Tbilisi etc.Mzia is married with Gia Bazghadze, has a daughter and a grenchild; She tells us a story about her sister Tinatin Petviashvili took part in an attempted aircraft hijacking by seven young Georgians on 18-19 November 1983