Tengiz Sigua

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Tengiz Sigua
თენგიზ სიგუა
2nd Prime Minister of Georgia
In office
6 January 1992 – 5 August 1993
(acting until 8 November 1992)
PresidentEduard Shevardnadze
Preceded byBesarion Gugushvili
Succeeded byOtar Patsatsia
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Georgia
In office
15 November 1990 – 18 August 1991
PresidentZviad Gamsakhurdia
Preceded by
Succeeded byMurman Omanidze (acting);
Besarion Gugushvili
Personal details
Born(1934-11-09)9 November 1934
Lentekhi, Georgian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died21 January 2020(2020-01-21) (aged 85)[1]
Tbilisi, Georgia

Tengiz Sigua (9 November 1934 – 21 January 2020) was a Georgian politician who served as Prime Minister of the country.[2]

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[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Gruzja: Zmarł były premier Tengiz Sigua". wnp.pl (in Polish). 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "SIGUA, TENGIZ". Dictionary of Georgian National Biography. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Transition to democracy, Volume 72. International Institute for Democracy. p. 174.
  5. ^ "Georgia started the war in "South Ossetia", says the Georgian ex-Premier (in Russian)". Ria Novosti. 8 August 2011.
Political offices
Preceded by
Bessarion Gugushvili 		Prime Minister of Georgia
1992–1993 		Succeeded by
Eduard Shevardnadze
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