Tskhinvali Region Amends “Regulation” on Renaming Geographical Sites
On December 5, the de-facto legislature of the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia adopted a so-called law on the naming of geographical sites in the region. According to it, the opinion of the local population must be taken into account when renaming a certain location.
Since the war in 2008 and the adoption of the first version of the above-mentioned “law” in December 2010, the de-facto Tskhinvali authorities have intensified re-naming of the Georgian names of geographical locations. According to the de-facto head of the “Committee for National Politics, Religion and Media” Alan Tadtaev, this so-called law was amended at the recent request of the local population.
Tadtaev stated during the so-called legislative session that local citizens – residents of the renamed villages – “were dissatisfied with the work of the [de-facto] state Commission on Renaming Geographical Sites and the geographical names assigned to their villages.”
He cited the case of the villages of Satikari and Tsinagari, whose residents collected signatures and sent them to the de-facto Ministry of Justice with a request that they be allowed to retain their previous settlement names. The names of these two villages are of Georgian origin (“Satikhari” and “Tsinagari”, respectively). After the renaming following the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, the former was called “Dikhuista” and the latter “Amdzarin”.
According to the new de-facto law, proposals on naming or renaming geographical locations shall be submitted to local de-facto authorities (the initiators of renaming may be so-called state and local authorities, public associations, legal persons, “citizens” of the region). The local de-facto public authorities shall inform the population and consider its opinion on the said proposals in accordance with the procedure established by the de-facto law.
The most significant toponymic shift revolves around Akhalgori, which used to be predominantly inhabited by ethnic Georgians, with ethnic Georgians still comprising a majority of the local population. In the early 1930s, during Soviet rule, the Bolsheviks renamed the settlement “Leningori” in honor of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the name Akhalgori was restored. However, after the 2008 conflict, when the Russian army seized the entire Akhalgori municipality, it was again renamed to “Leningori”.
Since 2010, the Tskhinvali region has also changed the names of the villages of Zonkari and Eredvi to “Tsadykhau” and “Irykhau”. In addition, in 2020, Anatoly Bibilov, the Moscow-backed de-facto leader of Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, issued a so-called decree allowing the adoption of a Soviet-era second name for the city of Tskhinvali – “Stalinir” (in reference to Joseph Stalin, a Soviet dictator) ” to be used on a par with “Tskhinvali” on May 9 (Victory Day) and June 22 (beginning of the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union).
Also Read:
- 27/04/2020 – Tskhinvali Gets Soviet-Era Name ‘Stalinir’ for WWII Commemorations
- 30/12/2016 – South Ossetia Mulls Referendum on Renaming the Breakaway Region
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
