On January 11, it was announced that The National Library of the Parliament of Georgia has a new head – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the son of the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who is replacing Giorgi Kekelidze.
Giorgi Kekelidze, the Director of the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia, says the Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili told him that he should leave his post because “11 years is too much” and “it’s time for renewal”.
“The Speaker of the Parliament met me and told me that I have to leave my post because 11 years is too much, even though I worked well, and said it’s time for renewal. I calmly told him that legally it is up to him, but there is another law, and according to this law, this is a great injustice,” Kekelidze wrote on Facebook.
Giorgi Kekelidze has been the general director of the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia since 2012. His time there has seen a boom in activity promoting the library, literacy, the arts and resource provision. Numerous “Georgian Corners” were set up in libraries around the world, and villages throughout Georgia were supplied with books to encourage youth to read. One of the most impactful projects has been the National Library’s project with e-book house “Saba” and TBC – the annual literary competition “Tsignieri.” The aim of the competition is to popularize book reading among schoolchildren. The doors of the library headquarters in Tbilisi were also opened to numerous exhibitions, concerts and awards ceremonies, promoting the library as a common space for all to enjoy.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili stated that Kekelidze’s removal from the post was a personnel decision, not political. “The National Library has nothing to do with politics, nor should it,” he said.
“I am grateful to Giorgi Kekelidze for all the good work he did with his team – this is a personnel decision that is important for the further development of the National Library. I am not going to make additional comments on the issue, since it is purely a personnel decision,” Papuashvili noted. “These attempts to somehow connect the National Library with politics in itself show the dishonesty of those who try to make such a connection. The National Library is the heritage and future of our common Georgian people in one organization and one building,” he added.
“The National Library is bigger than each of us, with almost two hundred years of history, and the work that has been done there over the years is important work. Behind this is the great team of the National Library, which has brought us the National Library as it is, with the vision of the future that it has. I am grateful to Giorgi Kekelidze for all the good things he did with his team,” said the Speaker.
“Every organization needs new energy and it is with this new energy that the National Library will continue to work,” he added, going on to announce that the new head of the National Library will be Konstantine Gamsakhurdia. “It is not even necessary to explain how suitable Konstantine Gamsakhurdia is for the position, and I would like to wish him success. He will be officially approved in the coming days. I think that Konstantine Gamsakhurdia will play an important role in the further development of the National Library of Georgia.”
“I confirm and it is my consent to take on this role,” said Gamsakhurdia. “It will take some time to start working, but not long. There are some procedural issues to be solved first.”
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia is the only son from politician Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s first marriage, named after his paternal grandfather, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, a leading 20th-century Georgian novelist. After the 1991-92 coup d’état against his father and the legitimate government, the family fled to Switzerland. He lived in Dornach and worked as a translator and as a freelancer for several newspapers.
In 2004, Gamsakhurdia returned to Georgia and began work as a politician. He has been part of the opposition to Mikheil Saakashvili’s government since then, and founded the Tavisupleba (“Freedom”) party. He was elected to the Parliament of Georgia on May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections, but refused, together with several opposition politicians, to take the seat, claiming that the polls were rigged. He was allowed to regain the seat and joined the Parliament in November 2009, becoming a chair of the parliamentary commission investigating the death of the late President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
Giorgi Kekelidze Moves to Biblus
Giorgi Kekelidze was quick to find new work, and was this week appointed as the creative director of Biblusi. He told media that he received an offer from the director of Palitra Media Holding immediately after leaving the National Library.
“I met with the director of Palitra Media Holding, and we agreed on plans we have for the external activities of the company, among which is the “literacy society” project, which will see us supplying rural libraries with books and computers, conducting different types of thematic lectures and seminars, the establishment of literary awards, and many other things, which I will reveal step by step,” Kekelidze said.
By Team GT
