February 2 massacre

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

February 2 massacre in Tbilisi (1992)

In early 1992, after a coup toppled President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia was in chaos. Gamsakhurdia’s supporters, called Zviadists, held protests in Tbilisi to demand his return.

On February 2, 1992, tens of thousands of people gathered at Railway Station Square and marched toward the government buildings, insisting the march be peaceful. The crowd was unarmed and many hoped to avoid violence.

When the demonstrators reached Heroes’ Square, gunmen opened fire from around the city. The crowd panicked, and many were wounded. Earlier the crowd had used a water cannon. Official counts are not clear, but at least 23 people were killed and at least 183 injured, with numbers still unofficial.

The attack was carried out by forces of the Military Council, the new government led by Tengiz Kitovani, Tengiz Sigua, and Jaba Ioseliani. The February 2 shooting is widely seen as the bloodiest day in Georgia’s modern history for cracking down on peaceful protests. No formal investigation into the killings was ever launched.

In the following months, Georgia descended into civil conflict that lasted until the end of 1993, with continued protests and fighting in various parts of the country.