Tengiz Sigua (9 November 1934 – 21 January 2020) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

politician who served as

Prime Minister of Georgia The prime minister of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს პრემიერ-მინისტრი, tr) is the head of government and chief executive of Georgia. In Georgia, the president is a ceremonial head of state and mai ...

from 1992 to 1993. Sigua was an engineer by profession and entered politics on the eve of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

's collapse. In 1990 he led an expert group of the bloc "

Round Table-Free Georgia Round or rounds may refer to: Mathematics and science * The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere * Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the number ...

". Following the first multiparty elections in Georgia, he was elected Chair of the Ministers' Council of the

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

on 14 November 1990. He was the prime minister in

Zviad Gamsakhurdia Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia ( ka, ზვიად გამსახურდია, tr; russian: Звиа́д Константи́нович Гамсаху́рдия, Zviad Konstantinovich Gamsakhurdiya; 31 March 1939 – 31 December 1 ...

's government from 15 November 1990 to 18 August 1991. However, he resigned in August 1991 after disagreements with the president. He later remarked that the newspapers used to call Gamsakhurdia "Caucasian

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

". Along with the National Guard leader

Tengiz Kitovani Tengiz Kitovani ( ka, თენგიზ კიტოვანი) (born June 9, 1938) is a retired Georgian politician and military commander with high-profile involvement in the Georgian Civil War early in the 1990s when he commanded the Natio ...

and the

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

leader

Jaba Ioseliani Jaba (or Dzhaba) Ioseliani (Georgian ჯაბა იოსელიანი; 10 July 1926 – 4 March 2003) was a Georgian politician, member of Parliament of Georgia, writer, thief-in-law and leader of the paramilitary organisation Mkhedr ...

, 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 A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

(Military Council, later transformed into the State Council) which was joined by

Eduard Shevardnadze Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze ( ka, ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე}, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for ...

) on 6 January 1992. 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. 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 RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asse ...

, Sigua accused the Georgian side of starting the 2008 war: "We started the war in 2008. We started to shell

Tskhinvali Tskhinvali ( ka, ცხინვალი ) or Tskhinval ( os, Цхинвал, Чъреба, Tskhinval, Chreba, ; rus, Цхинва́л(и), r=Tskhinvál(i), ) is the capital of the disputed ''de facto'' independent Republic of South Ossetia, int ...

and this, after the death of Russian peacekeepers, gave Russian troops the right to actively interfere".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigua Tengiz Prime Ministers of Georgia Leaders who took power by coup 1934 births 2020 deaths Mingrelians People from Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti 1990s in Georgia (country) 20th-century politicians from Georgia (country) Heads of government of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic

See also

References