GEORGIAN AIRLINES: BUSINESS WITH “QURDULI MENTALITETI”
This story fully reflects the state of affairs and methods of doing business in modern Georgia. The country, which in words strives to join the European Union, in reality cultivates the linear gangster practices that were common in the countries of the former Soviet Union in the 90s of the past century.
The hero of this article, the owner of the Georgian companies GEORGIAN AIRWAYS/GEORGIAN AIRLINES Tamaz Gaiashvili, began his climb in business precisely at that very time in the late 90s when it was impossible to create a successful business without belonging to any gangster group or without close ties with it. When powerholders were fed from the hands of the bandits, carrying out their instructions.
A SMALL EXCURSION TO THE “BANDIT NINETIES”
This state of affairs concerned both the very bottom at the level of police departments and the very top at the level of the presidential administrations of post-Soviet countries. Starting with the racketeering of small entrepreneurs, later gangsters gained strength and financial opportunities. After that they fold under their wing former state-owned enterprises, which were already giving significantly greater profits.
In turn, more money provided gangsters with greater opportunities for influence at the highest levels. Gangsters no longer just paid politicians for patronage and acceptance of necessary laws, and police generals so that they were given the opportunity to continue conducting criminal business. Gangsters began to influence directly on the appointment of their people - either active members of criminal gangs or persons who were not direct gangsters, but had close ties with mafia bosses and accepted the gangster rules of the game - to high positions throughout the vertical of power.
It seemed completely natural then that official laws were written only for ordinary people, “for the public,” so to speak. In the same environment where the corrupt merging of power and criminal business took place, where gangsters actually became power, completely different laws existed. Throughout the post-Soviet space, gang laws were called “PONYATIA” (Russian language), and business was conducted “PO PONYATIAM”, that is, according to the unwritten laws of the criminal community.
Mafia bosses are called differently in different countries. In the post-Soviet space, the hierarchs of the criminal community are referred to as “VOR V ZAKONE” (Russian). This title was and is still awarded at special meetings of the main gangsters, called “SHODKA VOROV” (Russian). At such a meeting, the gangster is “crowned”, giving him the highest status in the gangster community - “Vor v zakone”.
Georgia is the very country in which, during the era of its being part of the Soviet Union, the very concept of “Vor v zakone” and the gangster “Ponyatia” associated with it originated. In Georgian, the highest rank in the criminal community sounds like KANONIERI QURDI, an analogue of the Italian Capo di Capi. And this whole gangster “movement” in Georgia is called QURDULI MENTALITETI, implying that this or that person lives according to the unwritten laws of the criminal community.
Tamaz Gaiashvili is a complete reflection of the era of the inception of the gangster movement in Georgia. It would be inappropriate to claim that he has any status in the Georgian criminal community. Kanonieri Qurdi, according to their own “laws,” do not have the right to engage in official business. To do this, they have henchmen who are called “Authoritative businessmen” - this is a fairly common euphemism in the post-Soviet space. It seems like the man is a classic businessman. However, everyone understands how, and with the help of whom, he will “resolve issues”...
AUTHORITATIVE BUSINESSMAN TAMAZ GAIASHVILI
Tamaz Gaiashvili is a gangster not in status, but in essence. His manner of doing business fully reflects the philosophy of QURDULI MENTALITETI, according to which “Man is a wolf to man.” Yes, yes, this is exactly the “businessman” who publicly called the Georgian citizens protesting outside his office “lowlifes" for calling on Georgian Airways not to resume flights to Russia during the large-scale war with Ukraine.
Such people behave normally only with those who can be either useful or dangerous for them. And exactly until the moment this person is useful or dangerous. If the person with whom such a “businessman” did business is no longer useful and cannot be dangerous, then the Qurduli Mentaliteti philosophy instantly comes into play, according to which: “It’s not a sin to cheat on a sucker.” That is, if a person cannot do anything to you, you can deceive him, and it’s okay. In a criminal mentality, such an act is common behavior. Nothing good, but nothing bad either.
This is exactly what happened with the claimant company, which, as a broker, helped Georgian Airlines lease its first Boeing 767. Having signed a brokerage agreement with the MOSKAN AVIATION BROKERING LTD company (the name of the claimant is published with the permission of the company), the director of Georgian Airlines Irakli Mezvrishvili waited until the aircraft will arrive in Tbilisi and start working. After which he stopped communicating for 3 (!) months.
After three months, Irakli contacted the claimant and said that Georgian Airways would like to renegotiate the terms of the contract and was ready to pay only a small part of what was obliged in accordance with the contract he himself signed. He also clarified that this is a personal decision of the company owner Tamaz Gaiashvili. Like, no one from management can do anything about it. The owner's desire is the law.
Well, when after some time MOSKAN filed the case in the BLACKLIST.AERO, Tamaz Gaiashvili’s lawyers sent to the claimant a letter stating that after analyzing the agreement, they came to the conclusion that Georgian Airways does not owe anything at all and does not intend to pay. Tamaz decided to punish his “uncooperative counterparties” in this way.
It would not be out of place to say here that more than a year ago I had the opportunity to personally talk with Tamaz Gaiashvili on the phone. Then we were talking about a man who left large debts on his own company and safely moved to work at Georgian Airlines under the wing of Tamaz Gaiashvili. I asked Tamaz to influence this man and in response I heard everything he thought about debts in general and that situation in particular.
Witnesses of this conversation on my part are still impressed by that conversation. Therefore, when describing the personality of Mr. Gaiashvili, I rely primarily on my own impressions of this man. And my impression is this: according to Tamaz Gaiashvili, “only cowards repay their debts.” This is not his direct speech, if anything. This is a statement from another big aviation businessman (and not only) from Ukraine - Igor Kolomoisky. Now Kolomoisky is in prison. And much of what he “heroically did not repay” was taken away in favor of the state. But there are a lot of followers of his “philosophy” in this world.
CORRUPTION AS THE BASIS OF GEORGIAN AIRLINES BUSINESS
A very interesting character in Georgian Airlines is its so-called CEO Irakli Mezvrishvili. When the claimant filed a case in the BLACKLIST.AERO Registry, Irakli called to the claimant and said: “Tamaz fired me because of this case, I am no longer the CEO of the company.” The fact that this was an outright lie became clear almost immediately. And Irakli Mezvrishvili, if he had been at least a little more intellectually developed, could have calculated this.
Irakli Mezvrishvili has only one credentials - a pilot. Moreover, he was a completely ordinary pilot, not particularly distinguished in anything. But if intelligence is not his strong point, then why did Tamaz Gaiashvili make him CEO of the company and take him with himself to important meetings? Moreover, if you look at the company’s documents, Irakli Mezvrishvili is listed there as a co-founder of the company.
And here another “strong side” of Irakli Mezvrishvili opens up. The fact is that he is the son of the head of SAKAERONAVIGATSIA (Georgian Air Navigation Service) GOCHA MEZVRISHVILI!!!
Is it necessary to go around for a long to say that Tamaz Gaiashvili’s shadow partner in GEORGIAN AIRLINES is the head of SAKAERONAVIGATSIA Gocha Mezvrishvili?! And his son only plays the role of a “wedding general,” protecting his father’s share in this “joint venture.” If this is not corruption, then what???
But in order to understand why Tamaz Gaiashvili feels so at ease in the situation with the airline’s debts, you need to look even deeper into the modern backstage of Georgian aviation. After all, who can always say their weighty word to an airline that does not fulfill its commercial obligations? That's right - CAA. Moreover, as we know from my previous material about the debt of MYWAY AIRLINES, Georgian CAA is simply obliged to react to this.
However, if in response to a letter from BLACKLIST.AERO regarding the debt of MAYWAY, the head of the Georgian CAA Givi Davitashvili sent an answer like: “I can’t help,” then in response to the letter regarding the debt of GEORGIAN AIRLINES, Mr. Davitashvili simply remained silent. Why did it happen?
I’ll reveal the “Open Secret”: the fact is that Givi Davitashvili is Tamaz Gaiashvili’s protege in the CAA, like a number of other people in this authority. He was appointed to the CAA precisely in order to guard the interests of Tamaz day and night. And he does this with all his boundless “blindness.”
In particular, when Tamaz Gaiashvili’s other company, Georgian Airways, filed for bankruptcy on December 31, 2021, CAA was obliged to begin the procedure for revoking the company’s Operating License. At once. But for some reason this was not done. For several months, Georgian Airways played the game “I forgive everyone I owe!” with the complete connivance of the CAA (well, of course, a good reason not to repay debts, bankruptcy).
And then happened something that outraged the all civilized world and most of the Georgian people - Russia, which unleashed a bloody war in Ukraine, having already exterminated several thousand civilians by that time, suddenly opened its airports to Georgian aircarriers. And the only Georgian carrier that began to receive the huge jackpot from these flights was Georgian Airways!
Georgian Airways suspended its bankruptcy procedure basing on such super profits. Well, and CAA, under the leadership of Givi Davitashvili, which should have deprived the airline of its operating license a long ago, sighed with relief: “Well, you see, they fixed the situation! Why we should have withdrawn the license?!”
Therefore, the current silence of Mr. Davitashvili is not a surprise to us. Currently, all officials in the Georgian civil aviation system serve the interests of Tamaz Gaiashvili and don’t care about anything else.
CONCLUSIONS
Tamaz Gaiashvili’s business and methods of its conducting are a mirror of what has been happening in Georgia in recent years. The country that declares its desire to become a member of the European Union is in fact a puppet and junior partner of Putin’s Russia. Corruption has again become an integral (and necessary) part of doing business in this country. The benefits are received by only those who come to an agreement with the authorities and participate in its schemes, while involving this same power in their own schemes.
Tamaz Gaiashvili is currently feeling great: Georgian Airways earns crazy money on flights to Russia, carrying back and forth Russian relocantees and “something more.” Georgian Airlines plans to increase flights to China and Hong Kong and a number of European locations and has already leased a second B767.
Apparently, Tamaz Gaiashvili is an important link in the so-called “parallel import” schemes initiated by the Russian authorities and which is an essential way for Russia to obtain microelectronics and other dual-use goods necessary for the production of precision weapons and the war in Ukraine.
In addition, he owns the handling company AEROHANDLING, which was created exclusively to service sanctioned airlines from Russia. Tamaz invests the money earned in this way in the construction of a luxury hotel in the center of Tbilisi.
It would be naive to expect that the Georgian authorities will force Tamaz Gaiashvili to change his gangster decisions. Currently, the entire Georgian vertical of power is a complete reflection of the Putin gangster regime. Like a dog that over time becomes like its owner.
Two other scenarios seem more likely: firstly, it cannot be ruled out that sooner or later Georgian Airlines will fall under secondary sanctions for complicity in circumventing sanctions against Russia. This is worth thinking about for those who currently provide this company with handling, refueling and other aviation services. Let me remind you that currently the Georgian Airways and Aerohandling companies and Tamaz Gaiashvili personally are under sanctions imposed by Ukraine
And secondly, the MOSKAN AVIATION BROKERING LTD began legal actions in London. Based on the results of the consideration of this case, we can further observe the arrests of aircraft under the Georgian Airways flag in the UK and a number of other countries.
So, as they say, get the popcorn...
Artem Degtiarov, Chief editor at BLACKLIST.AERO
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