- Irakli Alasania
Irakli Alasania ( _ka. ირაკლი ალასანია) (born
December 21 1973 ) is a Georgian politician and diplomat. He has been Georgia’s Ambassador to theUnited Nations sinceSeptember 11 ,2006 . His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government ofAbkhazia (-in-exile) and thePresident of Georgia ’s aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks.Early life and career
Irakli Alasania was born in
Batumi ,Adjara . His father was GeneralMamia Alasania who was killed together with other Georgian politicians upon the fall ofSukhumi to the Abkhaz separatist forces onSeptember 27 1993 . Irakli Alasania graduated from theTbilisi State University with a degree in international law in 1995. Simultaneously he also took courses at the Georgian Academy of Security from 1994 to 1996. He worked for the Ministry of State Security of Georgia from 1994 to 1998, and was transferred to theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia in October 2001. He then served as deputy Minister of State Security from February 2002 to February 2004, and deputy Minister of Defense from March 2004 until July 2004, when he was moved to serve as an Assistant Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia.Diplomatic service
On
September 28 2004 Georgian PresidentMikheil Saakashvili appointed Alasania as chairman of theTbilisi -based Abkhazian government-in-exile. OnFebruary 15 2005 Saakashvili also made him his aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace talks, a move that was initially opposed by the Abkhaz secessionist leadership, but later accepted under the pressure from the U.N. mission (UNOMIG ). During this tenure, Alasania succeeding in establishing good ties with several Abkhaz politicians and was instrumental in resuming the Georgian-Abkhaz Coordination Council, a tool for direct talks between the two sides, in March 2006. That month, however, he was appointed as Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the U.N., a decision which triggered some controversy, with critics saying that sidelining Alasania from the Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations would hinder the positive momentum recently observed in the process. [ [http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=12813 Alasania’s UN Appointment Triggers Controversy.] "Civil Georgia".March 13 2006 .]Alasania, however, has retained his position of the President’s special envoy for the Abkhazia issues. In this capacity, he paid a surprise and largely unpublicized visit to Sukhumi on
May 12 2008 . The move came amid the stalemate in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks and increasing Russian-Georgian tensions over Abkhazia. [ [http://www.civil.ge/eng/detail.php?id=17815 Georgia’s UN Envoy Meets Abkhaz Leader in Sokhumi.] "Civil Georgia".May 13 2008 .]References
External links
* [http://embassy.mfa.gov.ge/index.php?sec_id=9&lang_id=ENG Irakli Alasania biography,] Georgian Embassy to the U.N. Retrieved on
May 14 ,2008 .
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