Vaziani Military Base



The Vaziani Military Base is located about twenty kilometers outside Tbilisi at Latitude 41.6947 Longitude 45.0467, Georgia. The main base is spread over 10,000 hectares. The Vaziani airfield—location: 41.62806°N, 45.03083°W—has strategic importance as its concrete landing-strip is suitable for middle (Il-76M) and heavy (An-124 "Ruslan") transport aircraft.

Under the Soviet Union, it was the home base of the 137th Guards District Training Centre, originating from the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps. The airfield was home to the 283rd Aviation Division of the 34th Air Army.

The Russians retained control of a number of military bases even after Georgian independence. Vaziani was one of them, the others being Gudauta, Akhalkalaki and Batumi. It was from Vaziani that Igor Giorgadze was taken on a military flight to Moscow after the 1995 assassination attempt on President Eduard Shevardnadze.

At the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in 1999, the Russian Federation and Georgia released a joint statement that Russian military bases at Gudauta and Vaziani would be disbanded and withdrawn by 1 July 2001.

Russia finally ceded control on June 29, 2001. A battalion of Georgia's 1st Infantry Brigade, Georgian Land Forces, then took possession.

In July 2008, it was the site of Immediate Response 2008, which were U.S. training operations for Georgian forces.

It was bombed during the 2008 South Ossetia War.