David Tevzadze () (born 30 January 1949) is a retired Georgian lieutenant general who was the country’s Minister of Defense from April 1998 to February 2004. Education and academic career Born in Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, Tevzadze graduated from the Tbilisi State University (TSU) Faculty of Philosophy in 1971 and Institute of Foreign Languages in 1978. He then obtained Ph.D. at the Georgian Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy where he worked as a researcher and also lectured in history of philosophy and mathematical logic at the TSU for several years. He also took an interest in martial arts and was a co-founder and the first President of the Georgian Karate Federation in 1989. The Federation was formed on 8 April 1989, a day before the Soviet troops used force against a peaceful pro-independence rally in Tbilisi. Tevzadze and several other members of the organization resisted the advancing soldiers to secure a corridor for the protesters fleeing the scene of the crackdown. Early military career With the declaration of Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union and the outbreak of civil unrest (1991), Tevzadze joined the Kojori-headquartered paramilitary battalion “Orbi” (“hawk”) which he commanded from January 1992 to January 1993 and took part in the war with the secessionists in Abkhazia. After the merger of paramilitary units into the Georgian Armed Forces, Colonel Tevzadze became a commander of the 11th brigade of reconnaissance (1992–93) and then of the 1st brigade (1993–94). From May 1994 to August 1997, he headed a Foreign Relations Office at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. From 1994 to 1996, he received training at various NATO education centers such as the NATO Defence College (Rome, Italy), George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany), and Command and General Staff College (Fort Leavenworth, United States). Minister of Defense In April 1998, President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze dismissed Defense Minister Vardiko Nadibaidze, a career Soviet and Russian army officer, and replaced him with more Western-oriented Tevzadze. Amid persistent budgetary shortage and a series of attempted mutinies in the army, Tevzadze attempted to implement some reforms in the Georgian military with the declared aim to help transition “from old Soviet model to the modern forces, applicable to the international standards.” He was pursuant to a pro-NATO line declared by Georgia in 1998 and rejected the post of deputy head of the Coordinating Staff of the CIS Armed