Maia Otinashvili (RFE/RL)
A Georgian national has been remanded in custody for two months in South Ossetia accused of helping people ‘illegally cross the border’ in exchange for money, South Ossetia’s State Security Committee (KGB) has reported. [Read more…]
European Court of Human Rights (Wikipedia Commons)
Georgia has filed a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for ‘wide-scale practices of harassment, detention, assault and murder on the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia’. While Georgia argued that such practices had ‘intensified since the 2008 war’ reaching a ‘critical point’ with the February killing of Archil Tatunashvili, South Ossetian officials dismissed the move as ‘an absurd propaganda action’. [Read more…]
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili serves as Georgia’s Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality (smr.gov.ge)
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili has served as Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, responsible for coordinating the country’s conflict resolution policy, since 2016. Tsikhelashvili sat down with OC Media to discuss the ministry’s successes and failures, her new peace initiative, and the barriers to and prospects for peace.
(on.ge)
Georgia’s national wrestling team made headlines on Friday after a photo was published online of the team wearing T-shirts of a North Ossetian MP to the background of the Russian flag. The backlash follows a series of controversies around the 10th anniversary of the August War, including in restaurant chain Machakhela, nightclub Bassiani, and with Radio Free Europe’s Georgian service. [Read more…]
Sergey Shamba (Dmitry Lebedev / Kommersant)
Former Prime Minister of Abkhazia, Sergey Shamba, has said that there is a need for more dialogue between Georgia and Abkhazia, and that it was time to think about a ‘common future’ as neighbours. Shamba, who served as PM from 2010–2011 as well as foreign minister from 2004-2010, made the comments in an interview published on 13 August with Echo of Moscow. [Read more…]
Protest outside the former Russian embassy in Tbilisi, 7 August 2018 (Mari Nikuradze /OC Media)
On Wednesday, commemorations were held in Tbilisi, Tskhinvali (Tskhinval), and elsewhere commemorating the 10th anniversary of the August 2008 War. As the presidents of three countries gathered in Tbilisi, Georgian presidential candidate Salome Zurabishvili described the war as ‘recklessness, the obsessions of a deranged president, or confusing collusion with a centuries-long enemy’. [Read more…]
Sokhumi (Dominik K. Cagara /OC Media)
Paata Zakareishvili served as Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality (formerly the minister of reintegration) from 2012–2016.
More than 25 years have passed since the beginning of Georgia’s armed conflicts — more than enough time for Georgian society and the political elite to assess what happened and why. It’s important that we evaluate where our progress stands in solving these conflicts, and whether we, as a country, need to reevaluate our aims and revise our policy — whether the achieved result are acceptable or not and if not, what we can change. [Read more…]
Anatoly Bibilov giving a Caucasian sabre to Bashar al-Assad on 23 July in Damascus (mfa-rso.su)
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has accepted an invitation to visit Tskhinvali (Tskhinval), South Ossetian president Anatoly Bibilov announced in a Monday press conference. The Georgian government condemned the announcement, calling it a ‘gross violation of international norms’.
‘The cost of conflict is enormous. Everyone paid that cost. I personally paid with my damaged psychology. The most precious part of what I had — the best period of my life — my young age was claimed by this conflict. This is going to haunt me all my life.’
Tamar Mearakishvili (/Facebook)
South Ossetian journalist Tamar Mearakishvili has accused Georgian deputy minister of reconciliation Lasha Darsalia of threatening and blackmailing her. Mearakishvili, who the authorities in South Ossetia are prosecuting for ‘slander and forgery’, has been critical of the Georgian government for failing to do more to help her. Darsalia has denied the allegations, telling OC Media there must be a ‘misunderstanding’.
