Currently Occupied by Russians, ethnic cleansing of peaceful Georgian population continues!

Tskhinvali (also spelled Cchinvali or Cxinvali; Georgian: ცხინვალი, IPA: [t͡sxinvɑli]; Ossetic: Цхинвал or Чъреба, Tskhinval or Ch'reba; Russian: Цхинвал(и)), is the capital of So Called South Ossetia.

The name of Tskhinvali is derived from the Georgian Krtskhinvali (Georgian: ქრცხინვალი), literally meaning "the land of hornbeams", which is the historical name of the city.From 1934 to 1961, the city was named Staliniri (Georgian: სტალინირი), after Joseph Stalin. Modern Ossetians call the city Tskhinval (leaving off the final "i", which is a nominative case ending in Georgian); the other Ossetian (unofficial) name of the city is Chreba.

It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 km (62 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

The area around the present-day Tskhinvali was first populated back in the Bronze Age. The unearthed settlements and archaeological artifacts from that time are unique in that they reflect influences from both Iberian (east Georgia) and Colchian (west Georgia) cultures with possible Sarmatian elements.

Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in Kartli (central Georgia) though a later account credits the 3rd century AD Georgian king Asphagur of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress. By the early 18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town" populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to the Russian Empire along with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a trade route which linked North Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed Jewish, Georgian, Armenian and Ossetian population. In the 1910s, its censused population was 5,033 with 42.3% Jews, 33% Georgians, 13.4% Armenians and 11% Ossetians.

The town saw clashes between Georgian People's Guard and pro-Bolshevik Ossetian peasants during the 1918-20 period, when Georgia gained brief independence from Russia. Soviet rule was established by the invading Red Army in March 1921, and a year later, in 1922, Tskhinvali was made a capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the Georgian SSR. Subsequently, the town became largely Ossetian due to intense urbanization and Soviet("nativization") policy which induced an inflow of the Ossetians from the nearby rural areas into Tskhinvali. It was essentially an industrial center, with lumber mills and manufacturing plants, and had also several cultural and educational institutions such as a venerated Pedagogical Institute (currently Tskhinvali State University) and a drama theatre. According to the last Soviet census (in 1989), Tskhinvali had a population of 42,934.

During the acute phase of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, Tskhinvali was a scene of ethnic tensions and ensuing armed confrontation between Georgian and Ossetan forces. The 1992 Sochi ceasefire accord left Tskhinvali in the hands of Ossetians.

Tskhinvali is part of the province of Kartli which is divided into three administrative regions: Kvemo Kartli (Capital of which is Rustavi), Mtskheta-Mtianeti (With Mtskheta as its capital) and Shida Kartli (Capital of which is Gori). The last region officially includes the historical district of Samachablo, the majority of whose population is Ossetian since the 18th century* and which had the status of autonomous district within Georgian SSR during the Soviet period (1922-1991). Since the Georgian-Ossetian civil war in 1991-1992, this district, which is known as South Ossetia, is de facto an independent state, though no nation officially recognizes its sovereignty.*During the 16th-18th centuries, the Ossetians, who were forced to flee their land in the fields of the Northern Caucasus, migrated southwards to the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountain range. Some of them crossed the mountains to the Southern Caucasus and thus settled in the mountainous region of Kartli (historical district of Samachablo).