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OC Media

OC Media

Opinion | It’s time for North Caucasian men to stop trying to put women ‘in their place’

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The most vocal crit­i­cisms of suc­cess­ful women in the Russian North Caucasus often come from abroad. It’s time for these ‘keyboard mujahideen’ — refugees from Chechnya, Daghestan, and Ingushetia living in western countries — to realise that following tradition and religion need not preclude an active, empowered role for women in society. [Read more…]

Opinion | Pashinyan’s neoliberal reforms risk undermining the values of the revolution

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Samson Mar­tirosyan is a freelance reporter based in Armenia. He writes on social justice, regional and domestic politics, and human rights, follow him on Twitter @mrtrsyns.

Pashinyan and his rev­o­lu­tion­ary team have begun their second march — this time as a gov­ern­ment parading towards economic rev­o­lu­tion. Despite their ambitious goal to shake up Armenia’s economy, which for years has been impaired by sys­tem­at­ic cor­rup­tion, feudal-like oligarchs and shady deals behind closed doors, their proposed ‘economic rev­o­lu­tion’ should do more to address the needs and expec­ta­tions of the people who made the Velvet Rev­o­lu­tion possible. [Read more…]

Analysis | Why the ruling party in Georgia is losing its MPs

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A still-forming group in par­lia­ment led by former Georgian Dream member Eka Beselia could upset the political landscape in Georgia. With 2020 par­lia­men­tary elections on the horizon, this new group poses a potential threat to both bil­lion­aire former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ruling party as well as the main oppo­si­tion. [Read more…]

Opinion | A narrow definition of safety harms workers in Georgia

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Georgia’s newly adopted law on labour safety is lacking statutes on workers’ rights due a narrow def­i­n­i­tion of safety — working hours, overtime payment, and required breaks are still not suf­fi­cient­ly regulated. Due to such weak edicts, worker fatal­i­ties are still on the rise.

[Read more…]

Opinion | A plea, a protest, and a good president: cosmetic changes in a cosmetic country

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Arzu Geybulla is a freelance writer orig­i­nal­ly from Azer­bai­jan, currently based in Istanbul.

After protests and pleas from the families of those killed in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azer­bai­jani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to pay them the com­pen­sa­tion they had been promised. But this U-turn by the gov­ern­ment and other small public con­ces­sions are only cosmetic changes to a country filled with injustice. [Read more…]

Opinion | Accepting our past is the only way we can move forward

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Javid Agha is an Ankara-based writer and social media observer focusing on Armenia and Azer­bai­jan, whose writing has been featured across the web including on the BBC. He is editor of Azer­bai­jani art and culture platform, VarYox.

In Azer­bai­jan, as in Armenia, remem­brance of the victims of past atroc­i­ties often takes on a one-sided nature. Despite attempts to twist and politi­cise such events to serve nation­al­ist causes, a more com­pas­sion­ate approach is needed to move forward, and a remem­brance that above all, innocent victims are always sacred.

[Read more…]

Opinion | Georgia’s economy has failed; now it’s time to build factories

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Tato Khundadze is a lecturer in Inter­na­tion­al  Political Economy at the Georgian-American Uni­ver­si­ty and head of the Ana­lyt­i­cal Division at the Georgian Public Broad­cast­er.

Despite the many inter­na­tion­al economic indices sug­gest­ing Georgia is a great success story, most Georgians live in poverty. In a country where emi­gra­tion is rampant and half the pop­u­la­tion ekes out a living in agri­cul­ture, the gov­ern­ment needs to create new strate­gies to form a strong, indus­tri­al economy. [Read more…]

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