Tengiz Sigua

Tengiz Sigua (born 1934) is a Georgian politician and former Prime Minister of the country.

Sigua was a metallurgical engineer by profession and entered politics on the eve of the Soviet Union’s collapse. In 1990, he headed the Rustaveli Society of All Georgia and led an expert group of the bloc “Round Table-Free Georgia”. Following the first multiparty elections in Georgia, he was elected Chair of the Ministers’ Council of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 14 November 1990.

He was the Prime Minister in Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s government from 15 November 1990 to 18 August 1991. However, he resigned in August 1991, complaining that Gamsakhurdia was a "dictator and a demagogue", who "changed his mind every twenty four hours and his principles once a week". Along with the National Guard leader Tengiz Kitovani and the paramilitary leader Jaba Ioseliani, he became a leader of the uneasy opposition which launched a violent coup against the President in December 1991-January 1992. After Gamsakhurdia’s fall, he became Prime Minister in the Georgian interim government (Military Council, later transformed into the State Council) which was joined by Eduard Shevardnadze) on 6 January 1992.

He was forced to resign on 6 August 1993 after parliament twice rejected the budget submitted by the government. He remained as an MP, led the National Liberation Front opposition party and backed a military solution of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.

In January 1995, Sigua and Kitovani organized an attempted march of 1,400 armed Georgian refugees into the rebel region of Abkhazia. The two men were arrested for having organized an unlawful armed group. Released a few months later, Sigua has never returned to active political life.

See also

* List of Georgians
* Prime Minister of Georgia