Miku Datunashvili
Miku Datunashvili მიკუ დათუნაშვილი Мику Датунашвили | |
|---|---|
 President Datunashvili, saluting the people on the 40th anniversary of the Republic of Salikhia, 2024 | |
 1st President of Salikhia | |
| Assumed office January 1, 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Himself Giorgi Gamsakhurdia (As President of the Reformist State of Salikhia) |
| Leader of the All-Salikh Revivalist Front | |
| Assumed office March 9, 1983 | |
| Minister of Economy of the Reformist State of Salikhia | |
| In office March 13, 1982 – June 4, 1983 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Miku Aloisius Datunashvili March 21, 1949 Qalqerzi, Tskhannia, Soravian Oblast of Salikhia |
| Citizenship |  Soravia (1949-1982) Salikhia (1982-) Montecara (1978-) |
| Political party | All-Salikh Revivalist Front (Since 1983) |
| Other political affiliations | National Reformist Party (1982-1983) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | Angeloz Datunashvili (b. 2004) Katerina Datunashvili (b. 2006) |
| Education | University of Montecara (Bachelor of Economics & Master of Economic Sciences) Rubum Institutus (Master of Economic Theory) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Soravia |
| Branch/service | Artillery |
| Years of service | 1967-1971 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
Miku Aloisius Datunashvili (born March 21 1949) is the current President of Salikhia and leader of the All-Salikh Revivalist Front, He has been in office since the Nativity Revolution of December 1983, which forced RSS' - Reformist State of Salikhia - President Giorgi Gamsakhurdia to abdicate and call elections, with Datunashvili officially taking power on 1 January 1984. He is the longest-serving contemporary president in Euclea.
Biography
Miku Aloisius Datunashvili was born on 21 March 1949 in remote Qalqerzi, the result of the marriage between dairy entrepreneur Beka Datunashvili, owner of Bedaqa, and the montecaran Victorà Zanni. From an early age, Miku showed great interest in the process behind the production of condensed milk, in which water is extracted from the raw material, to which 30% sugar is added, resulting in a product that can be preserved for years without perishing; years later Miku would describe that product as 'impressive', and a turning point in his life, as from that moment on he would become irremediably interested in everything related to industrial production. Such was his passion that his father enrolled him in [National Industrial School of Soravia or some shit like that], in Samistopol. Miku Datunashvili, according to his teachers a rather restless student, not very disciplined, but irrefutable in terms of knowledge, had no problems in obtaining an enviable average grade upon graduation.
Immediately after completing his secondary schooling, he was called up for compulsory military service, which was to last at least 24 months; Miku was to serve in the artillery. During his service, he met personalities of the stature of Vilem Gardos, with whom he would become friends, a detail that would have a profound effect on his future political career. Datunashvili was at that time a fervent unionist and member of the ZVNP. He managed to reach the rank of sergeant before being relieved of his responsibilities in 1971, the same year in which his colleague Gardos became president of Soravia.
Miku Datunashvili was given the opportunity to study at the University of Montecara after the end of his military service - once he had completed his military service, he decided to study economics there. What he probably did not expect was that he would get used to the Montecaran way of life quite well, even deciding to study for his Master's degree in economic sciences at the same university. At that time, Datunashvili was beginning to make a name for himself on radio programmes praising the Gardos government, but questioning the leadership of the Salikh Oblast, even giving his own opinion on what he thought should be implemented in matters of local economic policy.
Datunashvili applied for Montecaran citizenship in 1978, after seven years of interrupted residence in the country, and with direct family ties - his mother - to the nation, it was granted. In 1979, however, he returned to Salikhia to complete his second Master's degree, in Economic Theory, at the prestigious and ostentatious Rubum Institutus. When Miku returned to his homeland, his father had passed away, so he was left with the inheritance of Bedaqa; he would manage with high degrees of success to modernise and automate much of the production chain of his father's dairy company, which he would eventually sell in 1981 to [Transnational dairy-related company] for an unknown figure in the millions.
The Bedaqa case would earn Miku some of the most important headlines in the region, prompting Giorgi Gamsakhurdia - who was looking for the country's most important faces to form the first fully independent Salikh government in centuries after the nation's declaration of independence - to invite him to his newly formed National Reformist Party. Miku Datunashvili, unsurprisingly, was announced as the brand new Minister of Economy. However, he would quickly discover that the agreed terms were far from what was actually in practice; Datunashvili had little or no freedom in economic policy, and much of his decisions were already determined by the central government. Gamsakhurdia wanted to establish an isolationist industrial state, especially anti-Soravia; the idea turned out to be particularly disliked by Miku Datunashvili, who would found his own party, the All-Salikh Revivalist Front, in March 1983, before finally stepping down as Minister of Economy in June of the same year.
Giorgi Gamsakhurdia doubted Datunashvili's ability to achieve any progress with his new party and its pro-Soravia and pro-market visions; to his misfortune, the nation's dire economic situation and a popular disgust at the constant reports of corruption and embezzlement led an outsider like Miku Datunashvili to achieve more than impressive popular support. By November and December 1983, Datunashvili would actively take his campaign to the streets, striking fear into Gamsakhurdia, who would call for Martial Law for that year's Nativity. During that festive season, the largest of all the demonstrations called by the ASRF would take place, which would become known locally as the March of the Red Tiles (in the rest of the world simply referred to as the Nativity Revolution), characterised by mass altercations on the streets of Mtavarangelozi, the country's capital, where the seizure of the government house would take place; The security forces opened fire on the first columns of demonstrators, triggering a violent reaction from the protesters and giving the event its name. The event forced Gamsakhurdia to abdicate his office as president as he was exiled by helicopter to Laudania and then to Suhala. Subsequent elections had Datunashvili and other independents as candidates, but the result was already a foregone conclusion: with a voter turnout of 88%, Miku Datunashvili swept the December 1983 elections with a 96% result, taking office as President of Salikhia on New Year's Day, 1 January 1984.