page_title: 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état
section_title: Deception in Tbilisi
hierarchical_section_title: 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état / Historical Background / Deception in Tbilisi
caption_attribution_description: English: Act of the Restoration of Independence of Georgia. 1991
context_page_description: The 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état, also known as the Tbilisi War, or the Putsch of 1991-92, was an internal military conflict that took place in the newly independent Republic of Georgia following the fall of the Soviet Union, from 22 December 1991 to 6 January 1992. The coup, a violent representation of the chaos that engulfed the Caucasus at the beginning the 1990s, pit factions of the National Guard loyal to President Zviad Gamsakhurdia against several paramilitary organizations unified at the end of 1991 under the leadership of warlords Tengiz Kitovani, Jaba Ioseliani and Tengiz Sigua.
  Stemming from authoritarian actions undertaken by Gamsakhurdia, the Tbilisi War ended with the exile of the first democratically elected president of Georgia, after two weeks of violent clashes in the heart of the Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Tbilisi, was ravaged by the conflict, which mainly consisted of a siege of the Georgian Parliament building, where Gamsakhurdia was isolated in a bunker.
context_section_description: On 9 April 1991, two years after the Tbilisi Tragedy and ten days after a largely victorious referendum on the subject, the Georgian Supreme Council declared the independence of the country and appointed Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a famous dissident and spokesperson of local nationalism, as interim president. The latter was eventually elected president with 86% of the vote in an election that saw an 83% participation rate on 26 May. However, his presidency began with serious opposition, notably because of the large presidential powers granted upon him by Parliament, including:
  Veto power over any law approved in Parliament;
  War declarations and power to declare martial law;
  Appointment powers over the Prime Minister, the presiding judge of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General, and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces;
  A total immunity
  As soon as October 1990, while Gamsakhurdia's nationalistic movement was already in power in Tbilisi under the de jure jurisdiction of the Soviet Union, the new government proceeded to close a majority of newspapers supporting the Communist Party. Molodyozh Gruzii, a youth magazine based in Tbilisi, was also closed 3 April 1991 because of Gamsakhurdia's allegations of collaboration with the KGB. Public television, under the new control of the nationalists, canceled all programming not openly supporting Gamsakhurdia's platform and in December 1990, 60 members of the Mkhedrioni militia launched a hunger strike in response.
  Political persecutions only increased following the independence. The independent newspaper Iberia was violently expelled from its headquarters in May 1991. Journalists were routinely excluded from press conferences and public television often accused its competition to be at the service of Moscow, while death threats and false criminal investigations were used by Tbilisi against renegade news anchors. International press was also largely repressed.
  Several political opponents were also persecuted by Gamsakhurdia. In February 1991, ten members of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Kakheti and 56 members of the Mkhedrioni militia, including its leader, Jaba Ioseliani, were arrested. On 18 August, three ministers, including Prime Minister Tengiz Sigua, resigned from their posts and joined the opposition, accusing the President of becoming a "totalitarian demagogue." Soon, the capital fell into chaos, merely a few months after the national independence.
caption: The Act of Restoration of Georgian Independence signed on 9 April 1991.
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