Kurta (village)

Kurta ( _ka. ქურთა) is a village in the former South Ossetian autonomous oblast of Georgia. Populated largely by ethnic Georgians, it is one of those areas that remained under the control of Georgia since the rest of the region separated de facto from Georgia after the South Ossetian War of 1990-92 and till the 2008 South Ossetia War.

Kurta is situated nine kilometers north-east of Tskhinvali, the secessionist-controlled capital of South Ossetia, on the right bank of the Greater Liakhvi River, and is strategically placed along the Trans-Caucasus Highway (TransCam) between Tskhinvali and Java. After the Parliament of Georgia passed a resolution on the establishment of the Temporary Territorial Unit on April 11, 2007, Kurta became the headquarters of the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia headed by the ethnic Ossetian Dmitry Sanakoyev. The Georgian government has also allocated 1,850,000 lari to rehabilitation of the village's infrastructure. [http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4887&l=1 Georgia’s South Ossetia Conflict: Make Haste Slowly] , International Crisis Group, "Europe Report N°183", 7 June 2007]

Kurta and its environs are part of the Greater Liakhvi Valley Museum-Reserve. The village itself houses a late medieval Georgian Orthodox church of St. George. [ge icon სოფ. ქურთა. სამების წმ. გიორგის ეკლესია //შიდა ქართლი [I] : პატარა და დიდი ლიახვის ხეობების არქიტექტურული მემკვიდრეობა.-თბ.,2002.-გვ.199-200.]

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