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Tskhinvali |
| Tskhinvali / Tskhinval / Chreba ცხინვალი / Цхинвал / Чъреба |
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  Tskhinvali / Tskhinval / Chreba
ცხინვალი / Цхинвал / Чъреба |
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | South Ossetia1/Georgia |
|---|---|
| Established | 1398 |
| Area | |
| - Total | 7.4 km² (2.9 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 860 m (2,822 ft) |
| Population (2008) | |
| - Total | c. 15,000citation needed |
| - Density | 4,054/km² (10,499.8/sq mi) |
| Time zone | Moscow time (UTC+3) |
| - Summer (DST) | Moscow summer time (UTC+4) |
| Website: http://tskhinval.ru (Russian) | |
Tskhinvali (also spelled Cchinvali or Cxinvali; Georgian: ცხინვალი, IPA: [t͡sxinvɑli]; Ossetic: Цхинвал or Чъреба, Tskhinval or Ch'reba; Russian: Цхинвал(и)), is the capital of South Ossetia, a de facto independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being part of Georgia's Shida Kartli region, except by Russia and Nicaragua, which regard it as an independent state.
It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 km (62 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
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The name of Tskhinvali is derived from the Georgian Krtskhinvali (Georgian: ქრცხინვალი), literally meaning "the land of hornbeams",2 which is the historical name of the city.3 From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri (Georgian: სტალინირი), after Joseph Stalin. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval (leaving off the final "i", which is a nominative case ending in Georgian); the other Ossetian (unofficial) name of the city is Chreba.
The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.
Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in Kartli (central Georgia) though a later account credits the 3rd century AD Georgian king Asphagur of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress. By the early 18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town" populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to the Russian Empire along with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a trade route which linked North Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed Jewish, Georgian, Armenian and Ossetian population. In the 1910s, its censused population was 5,033 with 42.3% Jews, 33% Georgians, 13.4% Armenians and 11% Ossetians.citation needed
The town saw clashes between Georgian People's Guard and pro-Bolshevik Ossetian peasants during the 1918-20 period, when Georgia gained brief independence from Russia. Soviet rule was established by the invading Red Army in March 1921, and a year later, in 1922, Tskhinvali was made a capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. Subsequently, the town became largely Ossetian due to intense urbanization and Soviet Korenizatsiya ("nativization") policy which induced an inflow of the Ossetians from the nearby rural areas into Tskhinvali. It was essentially an industrial center, with lumber mills and manufacturing plants, and had also several cultural and educational institutions such as a venerated Pedagogical Institute (currently Tskhinvali State University) and a drama theatre. According to the last Soviet census (in 1989), Tskhinvali had a population of 42,934.
During the acute phase of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, Tskhinvali was a scene of ethnic tensions and ensuing armed confrontation between Georgian and Ossetian forces. The 1992 Sochi ceasefire accord left Tskhinvali in the hands of Ossetians.
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The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (August 2008) |
Tskhinvali was shelled by the central Georgian government on 8 August 2008 with BM-21 "Grad" mobile artillery rocket systems in an attempt to regain control over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Many civilians were killed, while the majority of the population left the town and fled into North Ossetia-Alania. After the bombings, the Georgian army invaded the city in an attempt to gain control of the capital. The Russian army responded on the following day by moving its own forces into the city and attacking the Georgian army. On 10 August Georgian forces pulled out of Tskhinvali that was captured by the Russian army after intense fighting. The town was heavily damaged during the battle. The Jewish Quarter - one of the town's unique neighborhoods was also reported to be destroyed.7 Andrey Illarionov, who visited the town in October 2008, reported that Jewish Quarter indeed was in ruins, he also observed that the ruins were overgrown with shrubs and trees, which indicates that the destruction took place during 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.8.
Currently, Tskhinvali functions as the capital of South Ossetia. Before the 2008 war it had a population of approximately 30,000. The town remained significantly impoverished in the absence of a permanent political settlement between the two sides in the past two decades.
The city contains several monuments of medieval Georgian architecture, with the Kavti Church of St. George being the oldest one dating back to the 8th-10th centuries, as well as Ossetian buildings.9
On August 21, 2008 a world-famous Russian conductor and director of the Mariinsky Theatre of Ossetian origin Valery Gergiev conducted a concert near the ruined building of South Ossetian parliament in remembrance of the victims of the war in South Ossetia.10
Tskhinvali is twinned with the following cities:
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