Tbilisi to Catalogue IDP Property in S.Ossetia

The Government of Georgia will resume logging of private property of internally displaced persons in their places of origin. As part of the process, launched in 2006 but carried out with periodic interruptions, the authorities have already catalogued the property possessions of about 67 thousand households in Abkhazia.

This time, the process will involve the property of about 10 thousand households in Tskhinvali Region in areas that were under the control of the central government before the 2008 Russo-Georgian war – Tigva, Eredvi, Kurta and Akhalgori municipalities.

The authorities will determine property ownership through a variety of means, including processing of earlier property records, confirmation of neighbors and satellite verification. The collected data will then be digitalized and entered into a unified catalogue.

Speaking to reporters on August 9, Reconciliation Minister Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said the internally displaced persons have “an indivisible right to return to their homes and when they realize this right, this process will enable them to benefit from their property rights.”

According to the State Commission on Migration Issues, there were 268,419 registered IDPs in 2016. Among them 242,443 hailed from Abkhazia, while 25,976 came from Tskhinvali Region.

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