Historical building with fourth category of accidence is left ruthlessly

“ Whole day I am sitting in cold room, where walls and floor are collapsing. Working in building, which is paralyzed, is very risky, but I am already adapted to this situation. I get up every day, choose best suit and come in Institute of Linguistics to do something for my language”- Giorgi Gogolashvili said, who is 71 years old and has been working as Department leader of Georgian language for 40 years in Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics. According to him sometimes employees don’t have light, or heating in building, but it doesn’t have big importance for them. Gogolashvili thinks more about his job and not conditions.

In Institute of linguistics walls are collapsing and floor is lowering. It’s already known for years that this building has fourth category of accidence. It’s the highest category, which means that building can demolish any day. The most dangerous condition is on the fourth floor. One more earthquake can collapse the whole building.

First expertise to Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics was made in 1990 and it was confirmed that building was catastrophic. After it was more damaged because of earthquakes.

“Since the end of 20^th century demolishing is starting in this building, hazardous condition is getting stronger, crannies are bigger. There is danger that floor can be fell. But this Institute is serving Georgian language and it’s more important for us than fear to work in that building”-Levan Vashakidze, technical director of the Institute.

“After each earthquake fissures are bigger. We told about it many instances and we got many answers, but not exhaustive. They didn’t tell that they could repair it. Mayor’s office said that they are going to reconstruct this whole street, but until us there are many buildings on that street to repair, so it would need years to achieve there”-Nana Machavariani, director of Institute of Linguistics, also professor at Tbilisi State University. According to her Government, Ministry of Education, Mayor’s office, Parliament, all of these know about this, but none of them responding.

Institute of linguistics is under subordination by Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, but the destiny of that Institute is depended on the Education Infrastructural Department.

“ We receive many letters every day. In Georgia there are so many crashed buildings and we can say that it’s one of the biggest problems. Some of them are historical buildings, which are important for its history and language and not only as building. One of the historical building which is going to damage is Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics. But it isn’t very easy to solve this problem in a short period of time, because it’s connected to enormous amount of costs. It is in the list of buildings, which need to be repaired, but we don’t know exact date when it start”- Mariam kakhniashvili mentioned, which is main specialist in Education Infrastructural Department.

This building makes danger for employees because of accumulated condition and they usually work from home. Some of them took computers at home and do their job here. According to them, it’s already ordinary thing that walls are opening, floor lowers. They think that if they decide to strike, it will create many problems for Georgian language.

“This building is fully crashed, so first important thing is to save facade. Underpinning is damaged, heaving sands are there and water goes inside the hillside. It can’t be saved only by strengthen”- Avtandil Arabuli said, who is is linguist and previous director of this Institute. According to him culture, education and science were always very important for development of country.

The main goal of Institute is to study Georgian from the historical view, to research grammatical, phonetical, vocabulary problems of Kartvelian languages and study connection between them. In this Institute more than 30 languages of the Ibero-Caucasian family are researched. There is also Georgian explanatory dictionary. The institute is responsible for normalization of Georgian scientific-technical terminology. But today Georgian language’s treasure, warehouse of books, is on the ground floor in darkness, full of dust.

Some businessmen’s occurred who wanted to build hotel instead of Institute of Linguistics, but director and employees of building aren’t going to compromise it. Institute’s director and employees hope that they can continue work in well-organized building.

Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics was founded on the basis of N. Marr Institute of language in 1941. Since 1988 it is the Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. During this period it had many heads. This building is in the list of cultural inheritance. It’s located in on Ingorokva Street, 8.