Army Chief of Staff Replaced

Colonel Vladimer Chachibaia, the chief of joint staff of the armed forces, has been replaced, four months after the appointment. Chachibaia will now serve as the First Deputy Defense Minister.

Chachibaia’s deputy, Devi Chankotadze, has been appointed as a new chief of staff of the armed forces.

President Saakashvili said that the reshuffle was related with “the necessity of improving the management of armed forces.”

“Recently I held the tests regarding the combat and physical readiness [in the army] and I thought that new programs should be developed in order to move our army to a new level,” Saakashvili told journalists in Sarpi, Adjara Autonomous Republic.

Defense Minister, Davit Sikharulidze, said on March 5, that Chachibaia will be in charge of planning and analytical department, as well as in charge of military education systems in his capacity of the First Deputy Defense Minister.

Reports that Chachibaia had filed for resignation to President Saakashvili emerged last week, but the Defense Ministry had strongly denied those reports at that time.

The Georgian press speculated that the move was related with Chachibaia’s discontent over alleged meddling of deputy defense minister and former prison system chief, Bacho Akhalaia, in the affairs of the joint staff. In his capacity of deputy defense minister, Bacho Akhalaia, is in charge of overseeing joint staff’s logistics unit. Akhalaia, who has been appointed on the post in December, 2008, is a close associate of Interior Minister, Vano Merabishvili.

On March 4 RFE/RL Georgian service reported citing Chachibaia himself that the President had accepted his resignation.

“Col. Chachibaia is an experienced military and a principled officer and the dual-leadership in the army – about which the press has been reporting – was unacceptable for him… That seems to be the reason behind his decision to resign,” Koba Liklikadze, a military analyst and a reporter for RFE/RL Georgian service, said.

But later on March 5, Chachibaia denied in televised comments that he had filed for resignation.

The very first official comments by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) also shunned away from using term “resignation” to describe Col. Chachibaia’s replacement and instead insisted that he had simply changed the post and had been “promoted” to the position of the First Deputy Defense Minister.

“It was absolutely appropriate candidate for the vacant post of the First Deputy Defense Minister; Mr. Chachibaia is in full compliance of criteria needed for this position,” Nana Intskirveli, the MoD spokesperson, told Civil.Ge on March 5.

Vladimer Chachibaia was appointed on the position in early November, 2008, amid series of reshuffles in the army’s top brass following the August war. He replaced Zaza Gogava, who was appointed as chief of the Border Police.

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