Georgian Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze said on November 15 that President Mikheil Saakashvili issued a decree envisaging the setting up of a Gendarmerie on the basis of Internal Troops.
“Following the cancellation of the Internal Troops, a National Gendarmerie will be set up in the country, while the armored vehicles of the Internal Troops will be transferred to the Defense Ministry,” the Minister told Rustavi 2 television.
No other details of the initiative are known so far. The Internal Troops, which were under the Interior Ministry’s subordination, officially merged with the Defense Ministry on November 1.
Georgian media speculates that the decision to form a Gendarmerie was triggered by the disputes between Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze and former Commander of the Internal Troops Gogi Tatukhashvili, who was appointed as the Commander of the Land Forces after the merger of Internal Troops with the Defense Ministry’s forces.
Unofficial reports say that Tatukhashvili wanted to subordinate the Rapid Reaction Troops to the Land Forces as well, which would have boosted his authority. But Defense Minister Giorgi Baramidze was categorically against this proposal.
It is most likely that Gogi Tatukhashvili, who was Mikheil Saakashvili’s chief bodyguard before becoming the Commander of the Internal Troops, will become the Commander of the Gendarmerie.