Irakli Alasania () (born 21 December 1973) is a Georgian politician, soldier and former diplomat who served as the Minister of Defense of Georgia from 2012 to 2014. He was Georgia's Ambassador to the United Nations from September 11, 2006, until December 4, 2008. His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government of Abkhazia(-in-exile) and the President of Georgia's aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks. Soon after his resignation, Alasania withdrew into opposition to the Mikheil Saakashvili administration, setting up the Our Georgia – Free Democrats party in July 2009. In 2012 Alasania was appointed Minister of Defense, a position he held until 2014. Early life and career Irakli Alasania was born in Batumi, Adjara. He participated in the Abkhazian war despite not being an adult, but in the last days of war with the pressure of his father General Mamia Alasania he was forced to live in Abkhazia, his father was killed together with other Georgian politicians upon the fall of Sokhumi to the Abkhaz separatist forces on September 27, 1993. Irakli Alasania graduated from the Tbilisi State University with a degree in international law in 1995. Simultaneously he also took courses at the Georgian Academy of Security from 1994 to 1996. He worked for the Ministry of State Security of Georgia from 1994 to 1998. In 1999 the Pankisi Gorge crisis began, he was one of the key figures of resolving this conflict. He was against of cooperating with Russian forces against Chechen Boeviks. In October 2001 he was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. He then served as deputy Minister of State Security from February 2002 to February 2004, and deputy Minister of Defense from March 2004 until July 2004, when he was moved to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia. Diplomatic service On September 28, 2004, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed Alasania as chairman of the Tbilisi-based Abkhazian government-in-exile. On February 15, 2005, Saakashvili also made him his aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace talks, a move that was initially opposed by the Abkhaz secessionist leadership, but later accepted under pressure from the U.N. mission (UNOMIG). During this tenure, Alasania succeeding in establishing good ties with several Abkhaz politicians and was instrumental in resuming the Georgian-Abkhaz Coordination Council, a tool for direct talks between the two sides, in March 2006. That month, however, he was appointed as Georgia's Permanent