On November 17, 1997, drivers of the company Tbiltrans gathered in front of the State Chancellery in Tbilisi, demanding a meeting with Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.

As reported by the newspaper 7 Dge (7 Days), the roots of their protest stretched back to the mid-1970s. In 1975, due to growing demand for public transport, there were not enough drivers in the capital. To address this, the Georgian Communist Party and the Tbilisi Transport Association (Tbiltrans) brought in drivers from the regions, promising them apartments and cars in return. Regional drivers had to work in Tbilisi for six years to qualify for housing, while local residents needed only four. Those who could not be accommodated in dormitories had their rent paid by the state.

Besides their driving qualifications, newcomers had to submit proof that they had given up their homes in the regions, leaving them with no option to return. By 1988–1989, roughly 1,000 people had received housing, but then construction was halted. “We worked for six years in full compliance with our contracts. Until 1995, we remained silent despite the country’s hardships… but 530 of us were left without apartments. Some of us live in rented flats, others in abandoned, unsafe buildings,” said Murad Nozadze, chairman of the drivers’ initiative group, who had moved to Tbilisi in 1983.

A presidential decree had ordered Tbilisi City Hall and the Ministry of Finance to include allocations in the 1998–2000 budgets to cover these debts and provide housing for the drivers. However, State Chancellery official Kakha Khoridze told the protesters that the following year’s budget contained no such funds and that none would be allocated.

The protest ended without results, but the drivers resumed their demonstrations the next year. On May 17, 1998, around 100 people gathered in Alexander Park again, demanding the apartments they had been promised. They sought a meeting with Finance Minister Mikheil Chkuaseli but failed, turning instead to Tbilisi City Hall and Tbiltrans.

Tbilisi Mayor Badri Shoshitaishvili promised to restart construction on a long-abandoned building in Mukhiani and house several families there, while vowing to resolve the remaining 502 families’ cases in talks with the Finance Minister within two days.