What of my friends in the 'other' Georgia?

I have been following the news of the fighting between Russia and the Republic of Georgia with more than a passing interest. You see, I have friends in that "other" Georgia.<br /> <br /> For two weeks in 1990, I along with about 300 other of this country's Georgians visited Soviet Georgia as part of a Friendship Force people-to-people exchange. I tagged along primarily to report back on a number of northeast Georgians who were making the trip. There had been such exchanges in the past but this was the first time Americans would be allowed to stay with their hosts and not in a hotel.<br /> <br /> It was at a time when Soviet Union was on the verge of breaking up and relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were thawing. <br /> <br /> And, though I lost contact with my Soviet Georgia friends not long after our visit because of another period of unrest in their country, I still have fond memories of them and have been thinking of them often during the past ten days or so.<br /> <br /> My host was Teimuraz Ivanovich Kobidze and his family - consisting of his parents, his wife, two daughters, an infant grandson - all of whom lived under one roof, in a two-story apartment which resembled what we call a townhouse. It was in the capital of Tblisi. Kobidze was Director General, P/O "Orbita-Service" of the Georgian Republic, a chain of electronics stores in Georgia. <br /> <br /> Then, there were friends of the Kobidzes and some of his employees:<br /> <br /> *Nancy, who acted as our translator since the youngster daughter of the Kobidzes, who was in high school, was the only member of the family who could speak English.<br /> <br /> *The Armenian who was our driver for most of the time we were there. It was he who kept me on the edge of my seat as he careened through the busy streets of Tblisi and down the narrow streets of some of Georgia's smaller towns or down a twisting mountain road... all the while with five or six cans of petrel in the trunk because there was never a guarantee that you would be able to fill up or top off the tank when you needed to. Petrel was in short supply and if a "gas station" was open, chances are there would be a very long line. But, nevertheless, we made it safely around Tblisi and the countryside with side trips to places like the Caucus Mountains , Gori (the birthplace of Stalin and the site of some of the fiercest fighting between the Russians and the Georgians), and Batumi on the Black Sea.<br /> <br /> *There was Michael , the young man who was a friend of the Kobidzes who gave up his apartment so that I and my roommate would have a comfortable place to stay. Staying in the Kobidzes apartment was out of the question. There simply was not enough room.<br /> <br /> There were countless others that I met if not for but a fleeting moment. But, all, from the oldest to the youngest, were most gracious and just as inquisitive - probably more so - about us and our country as we were about them and theirs. Everywhere we went, people wanted to see us, talk us... the Americans.<br /> <br /> It was at a time when the people of Georgia - like those in other of the U.S.S.R.'s republics - were yearning for independence... to be out from under the iron fist of the Soviet Union. Lenin's statues had already been toppled in some of the republics. My new friends promised it would be only a matter of time before the ones in Georgia came down and not long after we returned to the states, that did happen and Georgia gained its independence.<br /> <br /> The people talked freely and openly - on the street corners, in restaurants - of their longing for freedom and the right to govern themselves. It was something they said they would never have dared do just a few years earlier, for fear the KGB was listening, watching.<br /> <br /> So, what will become of them, their country?<br /> <br /> Is history about to repeat itself? Are they about to be swallowed up, once again, by Moscow?<br /> <br /> I can only hope not.<br /> <br /> <I>(Ken Stanford is Newsroom Manager for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, MAJIC 1029, SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and AccessNorthGa.com.)<I>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/8/212481