Reinstated Georgian Property in France, History & Prospect

OPED

Governments are not loved in general. In fact, they go mostly hated. The same here in Georgia! But there come some sacred moments when you think that even a government deserves love and respect. And we have recently witnessed such a moment in Georgia: the governmental service in handling the affairs of Georgian diaspora in the world, headed by State Minister for those affairs, Gela Dumbadze, academician Roin Metreveli, and the Minister of Justice of the country, Tea Tsulukiani, achieving the long-cherished goal of successfully finalizing negotiations and signing an agreement concerning the return of the four-hectare French property, the Leuville Estate, to its homeland.

Why do we say that the property was ‘returned’, not ‘transferred’ by one party to another? Because the land was once acquired with the money of the Georgian People, due to the vicious vicissitudes of life, by a group of historically embittered Georgian political emigrants immediately after the soviet takeover of Georgia in 1921.

Yes, it is the Georgian nation who has always owned it, and it is now legally back in our possession. Do we need a 40-thousand square meter piece of land somewhere in France, about thirty kilometers away from Paris, with still-standing mediocre structures on it? After all, any property requires money for its up-keep, and this is no easy task for an unprosperous country such as Georgia. But, yes, we do need this property, and we need it badly because right there, from now on and in the long run, too, Georgian culture will have a unique chance to demonstrate itself to the world right from the heart of Europe.

Why is this so important? Because the world does not know us well enough to take our merits into consideration when we appear on the international stage for negotiations on various issues tightly concerning our present life and the future of the Georgian people. We can now better prove that we are worthy of their thorough contemplation, due care and sharp attention.

This is one of the ways to endear Georgia to the world in which we are struggling to find our deserved place.

They say the French-Georgian Academy of Science might start functioning on the territory of the won-back manor and parkland; a French-Georgian joint cultural center is also part of the plan; a museum, library, educational hub and dormitory are imaginable, too, so that the visiting scholars and students have good enough conditions to work and relax in.

Hopefully, the rich and the powerful of the nation will have no access to the new domain with their desire to build ostentatious private palaces, as is the nature of those who have a proclivity to make maximum use of such occasional windfalls.

The Leuville return is taken by the Georgian people as the restoration of historical justice, and it is considered to have political significance and adds much to this nation’s international prestige.

I don’t think that Minister Dumbadze and other good Georgians like him could have done anything more important and valuable for their native country than this. In their entire lifetime, even!

Nugzar B. Ruhadze