Didi Mitarbi a village populated by ethnic Ossetians. It is located 1,480m above sea level, 3km away from Bakuriani, internationally important ski resort of Georgia.
Years ago, Didi Mitarbi, too, was famous of its ski tracks and ropeways, connecting Mitarbi with Bakuriani’s major ski hill, Kokhtagora. Sadly, this cableway has not been functioning and has been forgotten for the past 30 years.
More than 200 families lived in Didi Mitarbi before the 90s. Georgians and Ossetians would often marry each other so mixed-ethnic families were a common thing here.
Mitarbi’s agriculture was strong and the village used to supply a major part of the Borjomi Valley with dairy products. There was a school and public transport too.
In 1989 due to the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, the situation became tense in Mitarbi too. The village was attacked by an armed gang who forced the residents to leave their homes and the country. The entire village emptied in just three days. In parallel to this, Georgians were forced to leave Ossetia. This meant a lot of Georgian-Ossetian families split. Parents and children, wives and husbands were separated. The bilateral aggression claimed the lives of many people.
Several years later, through the help of the United Nations, one of the Mitarbi residents returned to his native village. Later, he was followed by several other families. Currently, about 20 families live in Didi Mitarbi. Some of them are internally displaced Georgians or people resettled here from nearby villages. There is no school in the village any longer and children have to go to the Bakuriani school.
There are only several people alive in Didi Mitarbi, who have witnessed the events of the 90s and remember everything. They returned home despite everything.
I happened to visit the village of Didi Mitarbi on January 2, 2015 for the first time. I followed a narrow road from Bakuriani to the forest and I found myself in a fairy-tale. This was Didi Mitarbi. I found myself standing at the highest spot of the village, looking over the whole settlement, which looked so attractive, I decided to go down the hill and see the village. What I saw was very strange. It seemed like some disease had spread throughout the village and everyone had fled it in one day. The village was full of partially destroyed and abandoned houses, shattered glasses and closed windows and doors. Balconies were full of pieces of broken dishes and furniture. There was a deafening silence all around. And all of these had the picturesque landscape as a background. I was interested in the history of the village and later, I visited Didi Mitarbi multiple times to get to know the village and its people better. I met those few people who remember the history of the village and talked with them. This is how I learnt all of these details about the settlement.