Numerous people were detained during an eviction operation from a group of buildings in Tbilisi’s Samgori district on Thursday. The evicted residents included internally displaced persons and socially vulnerable families. Authorities stated the occupants were living there illegally and that the buildings were unsafe for habitation.
Georgia’s National Bureau of Enforcement, accompanied by police, began the eviction process in the morning. Their action was soon met with resistance from locals and led to tense confrontations between residents and police.
Throughout the day, police carried out multiple rounds of detentions, first targeting residents and later activists who had arrived on the spot to support them. The Interior Ministry told OC Media that throughout the day, a total of 17 people were detained on administrative charges of disobeying police orders.
Later, lawyer Lasha Tkesheladze said police used violence against several people during the detentions, with one of them being dragged away and beaten in the ribs on the way to the police car.
Netgazeti published a video showing police officers restraining a man lying on the ground, while a woman is heard shouting, ‘Don’t drag him, he’s unconscious!’
Later, the man required medical assistance from paramedics. After recovering, he said, ‘My child called me and said we were being evicted’.
One of the evicted residents, Inga Papidze, told Publika that people had been gathered under ‘false information’ according to which a meeting would be held for ‘negotiations’, but instead, ‘they came and raided us’.
‘I was holding my four-year-old child in my arms when a patrol officer grabbed them from me. He thought it was an object and was about to throw them away [...] They’re like robots, programmed — they don’t even know what they’re doing’, she said.
The eviction process continued until nightfall. Publika reported that, alongside the police, masked and unidentified individuals were present at the site, shouting insulting remarks at those gathered.
Late at night, special machinery began demolishing one of the buildings from which residents had been previously evicted.
The Enforcement Bureau said 39 families were living at the address permanently, though some reports suggested the number may have been higher.
‘[These] buildings were unsafe for living. The load-bearing walls were damaged, which was made even more dangerous by unauthorised repair work taking place’, the bureau added, noting that this is also confirmed by an expert report.
The statement also mentioned that before the eviction, residents were informed about the ‘negative consequences’ of refusing to leave voluntarily and were provided with what the agency called ‘psycho-emotional support’.
The building on Tvalchrelidze Street in Samgori, near the large East Point shopping center, is privately owned. According to BMG, the property was purchased in 2022 by the company Black Sea Property for investment purposes. However, an agreement with local residents could not be reached.
The company told the outlet that in November 2023, it filed a lawsuit with Tbilisi City Court requesting the eviction of individuals who had ‘illegally occupied’ the building. The request was granted in April 2024.
The National Bureau of Enforcement stated that the eviction process had been postponed twice since it began, ‘providing the parties with additional time to reach a settlement and resolve the matter voluntarily’.
‘As a result of this communication, the creditor offered those illegally residing at the property a one-time compensation or rental support’. the bureau said in a statement released on Thursday after the eviction was completed.
‘The majority of residents accepted the offer today’, the bureau claimed in the statement.
Authorities’ claims and the evictees’ response
The building’s private ownership was the main argument used by Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze to justify his absence from the eviction site. He stated that ‘the Tbilisi municipality has nothing to do’ with the story.
Later, Kaladze went live on Facebook, claiming that the city had offered rental support to the nine families registered in Tbilisi, but most declined. He said the rest were not registered in the capital, so the municipality had no authority to assist them.
Kaladze also stated that 58 residents had IDP status and that ‘most’ had already been housed by the state. According to his claims, some of them sold their previously allocated apartments. The mayor added that some others owned property in the regions but preferred to live in Tbilisi.
Kaladze’s statements, also circulated by pro-government media throughout the day, were rejected by Papidze, who has four children and is registered in Tbilisi.
‘No one has offered me anything’, she said.
Some locals also said that the municipality offered to pay rent for their relocation for only three months, something Kaladze later denied.
One of the evictees pro-government TV channels focused on was Mzevinar Abashvili. Imedi and Rustavi 2 posted nearly identical social media cards stating that Abashvili had been approved for ₾50,000 ($18,500) in housing assistance.
Later, Abashvili said she first learned about this supposed approval from Imedi. She added that it would be difficult to purchase an apartment with that amount of money.
Abashvili further stated she is a single mother of five, homeless, socially vulnerable, and has health problems, including heart issues. She said she unsuccessfully tried to get rental assistance and homeless status from the government, after which she found an empty space on Tvalchrelidze Street and moved in.
‘I’ve been here for a year […] I don’t get involved in politics and I’m not interested in it — it’s just that we, the people, are not being taken care of’, she told Publika.
Tata Shoshiashvili
