Guram Mamulia

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Guram Mamulia (Georgian: გურამ მამულია) (May 9, 1937 – January 1, 2003) was a Georgian historian, politician, and campaigner for Meskhetian rights. A month after his birth, his father was imprisoned and executed by Stalin’s government, and Mamulia was raised by his aunt. He earned a history degree from Tbilisi State University in 1960 and began teaching there in 1973. In 1981 he was expelled from the Communist Party for defending dissidents. In 1983 he was removed from his university position after publishing an article condemning the Treaty of Georgievsk (1783), which made Georgia a Russian protectorate. In 1988 he co-founded the Ilia Chavchavadze Society. The next year he helped found the Georgian Memorial Society to remember Soviet-era victims. He supported Eduard Shevardnadze and was elected to Georgia’s parliament in 1992, where he worked on inter-ethnic relations. He helped establish the Association for the Repatriation and Integration of Meskhetians, which urged their return as a condition for joining the Council of Europe. He also collaborated with the International Black Sea University, a UN-supported program to foster cooperation between Georgian and Turkish scholars.