North-Caucasian scientists complain of ban on visiting Georgia’s National Archives

On September 28, Patimat Takhnaeva, a research officer from the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she was refused in examining materials at the Central State Historical Archives of Georgia.

According to Patimat Takhnaeva, on September 26, she got a response to the official request filed by the RAS Institute for Oriental Studies. The response from the Georgian Archives stated: "Regarding your request concerning examining materials at a reading room of the National Archives of Georgia, we herewith report we will not be able to provide you with the services of the reading room."

Patimat Takhnaeva emphasizes that she was examining materials at the National Archives of Georgia for several years, and the administration expressed no claims against her.

Scientists from Northern Caucasus face a restriction concerning examining materials at the National Archives of Georgia. This was confirmed to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Gela Khmaladze, an expert for the Caucasus and the former deputy head for the "Caucasus Foundation".

In particular, according to the expert, in early June, scientists were refused in the access to the Archives, and for the past period, ten scientists from the republics of Northern Caucasus were not allowed to enter the Archives of Georgia.

"I am a scientist myself. I work with documents in the archive rooms, and I see that the ban is not applied to residents of other countries. Scientists from Northern Caucasian have to examine documents of the 19^th century at the Georgian Archives, since then the governor appointed by the Russian Emperor stayed in Tbilisi and the entire tsarist administration was also located in Tbilisi. And the documents for Northern Caucasus are stored here. Scientists from Northern Caucasian are mostly interested in the documents relating to the Russian-Caucasian war in the 19^th century," said Gela Khmaladze.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.