Tengiz Sigua (9 November 1934 – 21 January 2020) was a Georgian politician who served as Prime Minister of Georgia from 1992 to 1993.[2]
Tengiz Sigua | |
---|---|
თენგიზ სიგუა | |
2nd Prime Minister of Georgia | |
In office 6 January 1992 – 6 August 1993 (acting until 8 November 1992) | |
President | Eduard Shevardnadze |
Preceded by | Besarion Gugushvili |
Succeeded by | Otar Patsatsia |
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Georgia | |
In office 15 November 1990 – 18 August 1991 | |
President | Zviad Gamsakhurdia |
Preceded by | Nodar Chitanava |
Succeeded by | Murman Omanidze (acting); Besarion Gugushvili |
Personal details | |
Born | Lentekhi, Georgian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union | 9 November 1934
Died | 21 January 2020[1] Tbilisi, Georgia | (aged 85)
Signature | |
Sigua was an engineer by profession[2] and entered politics on the eve of the Soviet Union's collapse. In 1990 he led an expert group of the bloc "Round Table-Free Georgia". Following the first multiparty elections in Georgia, he was elected Chair of the Ministers' Council of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 14 November 1990.[2]
He was the prime minister in Zviad Gamsakhurdia's government from 15 November 1990 to 18 August 1991. However, he resigned in August 1991 after disagreements with the president.[2] He later remarked that the newspapers used to call Gamsakhurdia "Caucasian Saddam Hussein".[3] Along with the National Guard leader Tengiz Kitovani and the paramilitary leader Jaba Ioseliani, he became a leader of the uneasy opposition which launched a violent coup against the President in December 1991-January 1992. After Gamsakhurdia's fall, he became Prime Minister in the Georgian interim government (Military Council, later transformed into the State Council) which was joined by Eduard Shevardnadze) on 6 January 1992.[2] He was reappointed Prime Minister on 8 November 1992 by the newly elected Parliament.
He resigned on 6 August 1993 after the Parliament rejected the budget submitted by the government.[4] He remained as an MP, led the National Liberation Front opposition party and backed a military solution of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
In an interview with the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Sigua accused the Georgian side of starting the 2008 war: "We started the war in 2008. We started to shell Tskhinvali and this, after the death of Russian peacekeepers, gave Russian troops the right to actively interfere".[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Gruzja: Zmarł były premier Tengiz Sigua". wnp.pl (in Polish). 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "SIGUA, TENGIZ". Dictionary of Georgian National Biography. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
- ^ "Მთავარი".
- ^ Transition to democracy, Volume 72. International Institute for Democracy. p. 174.
- ^ "Georgia started the war in "South Ossetia", says the Georgian ex-Premier (in Russian)". Ria Novosti. 8 August 2011.