Irakli Dzneladze

Irakli Dzneladze
Col. Dzneladze at JMRC, Hohenfels in February 2013
Born	May 10, 1968
Allegiance	Georgia
Service/branch	Georgian Army
Rank	Colonel
Commands held	Georgian Armed Forces

Irakli Dzneladze (Georgian: ირაკლი ძნელაძე) (born May 10, 1968) is a Georgian colonel and the Chief of Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces from December 4, 2012, to November 22, 2013.

Education

Dzneladze graduated from the Georgian Technical University with a degree in Machine Building Industry in 1992 and from the Joint Military Academy of Defense Ministry of Georgia in 1999. He received further military training in Germany in 1998 and 2000 and in the United States in 2009.^[1]

Career

Dzneladze has been employed at various departments of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia since 1993. He has also worked at the J-3 Operative Planning Department and Land Forces Command for various periods of time. Dzneladze was appointed Chief of J-2 Intelligence Department of the Joint Staff in November 2011 and moved to the position of military attaché to Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus in May 2012.^[1][2]

Chief of Joint Staff

Dzneladze was appointed as the Chief of Joint Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces on December 4, 2012. His appointment was the result of agreement between President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania, who then represented opposing political parties since the defeat of Saakashvili's United National Movement in favor of Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, of which Alasania was a member, in the 2012 parliamentary election. The appointment was preceded by a controversy over Dzneladze's predecessor Brigadier General Giorgi Kalandadze, who was briefly arrested and subsequently stripped of his office by the court in November 2012.^[3][4] He was succeeded as Chief of General Staff by General Vakhtang Kapanadze on November 22, 2013.^[5] Dzneladze was appointed as Georgia's military representative to the NATO headquarters in Brussels.^[6]

References

1. Irakli Dzneladze. Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Accessed December 8, 2012.
2. Georgia gets a new Chair of the Joint Staff. Democracy & Freedom Watch. December 4, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2012.
3. Saakashvili Presents New Chief of Army Staff. Civil Georgia. December 5, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2012.
4. Georgia: Can Tbilisi Keep Politics Out of Military?. EurasiaNet. December 4, 2012. Accessed December 8, 2012.
5. New Army Chief of Staff Appointed. Civil Georgia. November 22, 2013.
6. "Georgian Mission to NATO: Mission Staff". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. Retrieved 7 December 2014.