Salome Zourabichvili

Levan is the maternal grandson of Niko Nikoladze (1843-1928), a businessman, philanthropist and Georgian politician of the late 19th century who served as a member of the Social-Democratic Party and was an influential leader of the Georgian liberal intelligentsia during the Russian Empire.

Salome Zourabichvili was born into a family of Georgian emigrants that fled to France following the 1921 Red Army invasion of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

Her father, Levan Zourabichvili, a career engineer, served for many years as chairman of the Georgian Association of France (AGF).

Her mother Zeïnab Kedia (1921-2016) was a daughter of Melkisedek Kedia, head of the Security Service of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

Salome Zourabichvili (Salomé Zourabichvili, სალომე ზურაბიშვილი, ; born 18 March 1952) is a French-Georgian politician and former diplomat currently serving as the fifth president of Georgia, in office since December 2018.

She is the first woman to be elected as Georgia's president, a position she will occupy for a term of six years.

As a result of constitutional changes coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia's last popularly elected president; future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.

Zourabichvili was born in Paris, France into a family of Georgian political refugees.

Salomé Nino Zourabichvili was born in Paris on 18 March 1952 and was raised within the Georgian community in France, settled between Paris and Leuville-sur-Orge since the 1921 fall of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

Raised in a prominent emigrant family with close ties to the government in-exile of Georgia, the diaspora was the only contact she had in her childhood with the country, once stating: "In the years before the Iron Curtain fell, there was no contact with Georgia - no letters, no newspapers, no visits. For us, it was a mythical country, which only existed in books."

At 8 years old, she met her first visitor from Georgia during a visit to Paris by a Georgian ballet troupe, a meeting held in secret because of the repressive nature of the Soviet authorities organizing the visit.

In an interview with The Washington Post, she said she felt comfortable "straddling the two cultures", attending French schools while going to the Georgian church of Paris on the weekends.

At the age of 17, Zourabichvili received baccalauréat results that allowed her "the privilege of a direct admission in the terrible preparatory year" of the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in September 1969, a program out of which only half of participants reach the Institute after a year.

She joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and over three decades went on to occupy a variety of increasingly senior diplomatic positions.

In May 1970, her final exam topic choice on "Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Europe between 1917 and 1923" guaranteed her a spot at the Institute.

In 1970, she joined the International Section of Sciences Po, a path toward diplomatic service accessed only by a minority of the 4,000 students at the Institute, of which a third were women.

She studied under a number of well-known French professors, such as historians Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, Louis Chevalier, her cousin Hélène Carrère d'Encausse and the international lawyer Suzanne Bastid, the latter two being the only women teaching at Sciences Po.

Zourabichvili concentrated her studies on the Soviet world and graduated in July 1972.

In a letter of recommendation by Sciences Po Secretary-General René Henry-Gréard, the latter described her as a student who, despite her "shyness", possessed "exceptional qualities" and predicted a great future for her.

She joined Columbia University in 1972-1973 where Zbigniew Brzezinski, at the time director of the Trilateral Commission, trained her on Soviet politics and Cold War diplomacy.

She has said that choosing a career in diplomacy was linked with hopes to one day being instrumental in helping Georgia.

From 2003 to 2004, she served as the Ambassador of France to Georgia.

In 2004, by mutual agreement between the presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia.

During her tenure at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), she negotiated a treaty that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from the undisputed parts of the Georgian mainland.

She has also served at the UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee as the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts.

After a falling out with Georgia's then president Mikheil Saakashvili, in 2006 Zourabichvili founded The Way of Georgia political party, which she led until 2010.

Salome Zourabichvili has one brother, Othar Zourabichvili, a doctor, writer and chairman of the AGF since 2006.

They are cousins of historian Hélène Carrère d'Encausse, who was member of the Académie Française, and philosopher François Zourabichvili.

Zourabichvili returned to Sciences Po in 2006, this time as a professor shortly after her departure as Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

She worked until 2014 at the Paris School of International Affairs, teaching the foreign policy of large powers, the post-Soviet world, the development of Eurasia since the fall of the USSR, and the causes for that fall.

In that post, she academically analyzed the progress of the European Union in times of crisis.

A student would later describe her classes as "encouraging important debates".

She is the first student and professor of Sciences Po to become head of state.

From her first marriage to Iranian-American World Bank economist Nicolas Gorjestani, Zourabichvili has two children: Kéthévane (France 24 journalist ) and Théïmouraz (a French diplomat ).

Ultimately, she was elected to the Georgian Parliament in 2016 as an independent; she vacated her parliamentary seat after being sworn in as president.

Zourabichvili ran in the 2018 Georgian presidential election as an independent candidate and prevailed in a run-off vote against the United National Movement nominee Grigol Vashadze.

Later in 2019, the school would describe her results on the topics on the Rerum novarum, Kulturkampf and Alexander II's reforms as a "triumph", while a professor described her as a "very smart student who quickly learned the methodology and know-how of the program".

During her presidential campaign Zurabichvili was endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream party; however, following the 2020–2021 Georgian political crisis, Zourabichvili has become increasingly alienated from the Georgian government, which has also heightened after the 2023 Georgian protests.

The inter-institutional conflict eventually led to the Parliament launching the impeachment proceeding against Zourabichvili in September 2023, alleging violation of Constitution on her behalf.

However, the Parliament ultimately failed to impeach Zourabichvili.