President’s Palace May Become the Georgian National Culture Museum
The “President’s Palace” in the Avlabari district of Tbilisi may be turned into the National Museum of Georgian Culture. The building was the presidential residence until the new President Salome Zurabishvili decided to reside in Orbeliani Palace near Alexandrouli Park.
The information was released by Georgian Dream MP Mamuka Mdinaradze after a meeting held on Sunday at the central office of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party.
Mdinaradze noted that a working group will decide the fate of the building of the former presidential residence and that “the arrangement of a museum was only one of the options under consideration”.
“A positive decision will be made with regard the Avlabari palace. We have several options, but a culture museum is one of the main ideas,” he added.
During the pre-election campaign, the GD-supported Zurabishvili mentioned several times that she would not live in the Avlabari residence if she became president, highlighting it as a state-owned building where the country's premier or foreign ministry would be better placed than the President’s Administration.
The GD had also raised the issue with Zurabishvili’s predecessor Giorgi Margvelashvili, urging him to move into the Orbeliani residence on Atoneli Street, Old Tbilisi, which was prepared for him after his election and which is now the residence of the new president.
Opposition parties do not agree with the position of the majority and state that such important state institutions as the Presidential Administration, should not choose a lesser address than the Avlabari palace.
Khatia Dekanoidze, member of the opposition United National Movement, points out that if the dispute originates from the high costs of maintaining Avlabari as a Presidential Residence, the same expenses will be needed if a culture museum is to open there.
“I think the decision to change the function of Avlabari palace was made by the informal ruler of the country,” she said, referring to the GD founder and Chair, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Parliamentary minority European Georgia also criticized GD for their steps. Levan Tarkhnishvili, member of European Georgia believes that the ruling team has more important issues to discuss rather than defining a new function to the former presidential residence.
“The steps that GD takes, including moving parliament back from Kutaisi to Tbilisi and moving the Constitutional Court from Batumi to the capital, and now the issue of the Presidential residence, weakens the state institutions. We see that instead of solving problems, GD is creating them,” he said.
The former “President’s Palace” in Avlabari was built by ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, and the GD repeatedly stated it was an unfit place for the President to live due to the high cost of its original construction and subsequent upkeep, which takes up to GEL 3 million monthly from the state budget.
By Thea Morrison
Image source: RFE/RL