I'm looking forward to seeing Goga Bitadze. Tall skinny supposedly skilled Georgian.
I was just out that way, and the Georgian men tended to be stocky with guts and very round heads, more like wrestlers than hoopsters. Though there was another distinct type, very thin with a narrow long face and close-set eyes and beaky nose. It really seemed like two very common types.
Since Enes helped folks learn about Turkey (and Poconos-style Gulenism), I'll take this Goga op to fill you in on Georgia.
Since 1988, they've fought three wars. Taking a chunk of Armenian-populated Azerbaijan (in a war that started pre-Soviet breakup, when both were in the USSR); lost half their Black Sea coastline to Russia (Abkhazia, fka the Georgian Riviera); and lost South Ossetia another chunk of territory in the north not far from the capital Tbilisi. 3 frozen conflicts makes Georgia the current record-holder.
For the past decade. a billionaire controls the country, with his subordinates as the gov't leaders. He made his money in the Russian aluminum wars, cashing out when it became overly deadly. So he's connected to Russia, the people all speak Russian as a second language, but Russia is the enemy. And a tough enemy to have. Turks come to the Black Sea coast of Georgia to gamble. The Caucasus Mts generally hit 15,000 to 18K feet and keep Russia mostly at bay. Which is why tiny Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan survived between Russia, Ottoman Empire and Persia despite getting overrun often enough.
Georgia has a nice wine country. Georgia and Armenia both lay claim to being the first wine-producers in history. There's great hiking and skiing. A genuine democracy, though corrupted some. There's also a significant grey market and informal economy. Twice we rented cars from the informal economy. Once our car rental company was a big fat wrestler-looking dude on the street standing by 5 fairly nice vehicles. He was amused when I insisted in putting the daily fee on the one-page rental contract. it was all cheaper and faster and more convenient than dealing with an actual rental company. For instance, you just call Gregor the Wrestler and he meets you anywhere in the city for your drop-off.
Tbilisi a difficult city to drive in. Much of Georgia is a speed trap, with mounted cameras all over. Georgians with a reputation as poor drivers. Then again, we saw 3 car accidents in a 15 minute stretch re-entering Yerevan, Armenia, so maybe it's a Caucasus thing.
A few times I tried to strike up a basketball convo. Most folks said that Soccer was the big sport and hoops wasn't that popular. One guy at a winery was into the NBA and mentioned all the Georgians who played in the NBA.
Zaza Pachulia, Tornike Shengelia, Vladimir Stepania, Jake Tsakalidis, Nikoloz Tskitishvili. As you can see, not an imposing list, though 5 from such a tiny country isn't bad at all. ZaZa is the best of the lot, so not such a high bar for Goga Bitadze to be the best Georgian hoopster ever.
Btw, family names ending in -ivili and -dze (either -adze or -idze) are very common, distinctly Georgian surnames.
For instance, Joseph Stalin was a Georgian born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. I went to the Stalin Museum in his hometown of Gori. Reasonably interesting. The -dze ending means "son of". So much like the Irish O'___ or Scandinavian -son or -sen endings.
Similarly the -shvili ending means "child of" and often used akin to from a specific town or region. Somewhat like
in Spanish
Apparently the 'dze ending comes from Western Georgia.
Basically surname patronymics like in Russia.
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