Kvemo-Kartli

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2020 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Two opposition figures shot at in southern Georgia within days of each other

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•2 min read

Two members of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party have been shot at in the southern Georgian region of Kvemo-Kartli within days of each other in what the party says are attacks by members of the ruling Georgian Dream party. UNM party activist Humbat Jalilov was shot and wounded in the town of Marneuli on Saturday less than a week after the former mayor of the town of Dmanisi said his car had been shot at. Speaking to the opposition-leaning TV channel Mtavari, a cousin of Jal

A photograph of Aitaj Shakhmarova. Image via ambebi.ge

child marriage

Family of 14-year-old murdered in Georgia charged with complicity in her early marriage

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•4 min read

A Georgian court has charged the mother and uncle of 14-year-old Aitaj Shakhmarova, who was murdered in early October, with forced marriage of a minor. Local media reported on Friday that the minor had been kidnapped and forced into marriage by 27-year-old Asim Aslanov two months prior to the incident, and shot dead when she tried to escape on 6 October. Police arrested Asim Aslanov on Tuesday after a four-day search, a day after the Telavi district court charged Aslanov in absentia. Asla

Bolnisi Museum. Photo: Fernando Javier Urquijo.

Feature Stories

Bolnisi Museum — the longest human journey

by Hans Gutbrod

•6 min read

The Bolnisi Museum is a gem you should visit even if you have just a few days in Georgia. The findings it displays inspire awe and may even change how you look at the history of human development. Around an hour’s drive south of Tbilisi, the Bolnisi Museum is the major exhibit for the archaeological site of Dmanisi — where the first hominins outside Africa were found. Opened two years ago as the pandemic got going, the museum is a first-class attraction, as its nomination for the European Mus

Samira Bayramova painted Ukrainian flags on the office of the Conservative Movement, the political offshoot of far-right and pro-Russian group Alt-Info. Photo: Tiko Davadze/Radio Marneuli.

Alt Info

The woman challenging Georgia’s far-right

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•4 min read

Marneuli-based human rights activist Samira Bayramova is fighting against the far-right pro-Russia Georgian group Alt-Info and its political offshoot, the Conservative Movement. Though Samira Bayramova has long been an outspoken advocate for minority rights in Georgia, she was most recently thrust into the spotlight for taking her protest straight to the Conservative Movement’s Marneuli headquarters on 14 March. The ethnic Azerbaijani activist spraypainted the windows of the pro-Russian part

Georgia

In Pictures | Fighting to save the art of Borchalo carpet weaving in Georgia

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•2 min read

The Kajarova sisters, 68-year-old Fatma and 72-year-old Tukazban, have been helping their grandmother weave carpets since childhood. The sisters have lived their whole lives in the village of Kosalar, located in the southern Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli. The Borchalo carpets they weave are made only in Kosalar and the village of Iormughanlo, in the neighbouring Kakheti region — only a few dozen women carry on the carpet weaving tradition. ‘I was six years old when I first h

The scene outside the regional police office on 17 May in Dmanisi. Photo via TV4.

Georgia

Georgian government denies ‘ethnic conflict’ amidst clashes in Dmanisi

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

Clashes have erupted between groups of ethnic Georgians and ethnic Azerbaijanis since Sunday in the southeast Georgian town of Dmanisi. Georgian opposition groups have criticised government authorities over police inactivity. Two large groups engaged in street fights for the second day on Monday. The altercations have resulted in several arrests and a number of injuries; no official numbers have yet been made available. On Monday afternoon, police set up checkpoints at the entrances to the t

Azerbaijani Georgians

‘My secret life’: Gay and Azerbaijani in rural Georgia

by OC Media

•5 min read

Linguistic barriers and tight-knit but conservative communities have left queer members of Georgia’s ethnic minorities isolated, vulnerable, and invisible to the country’s queer rights organisations. Namig (not his real name) is a 28-year-old ethnic Azerbaijani living in Georgia’s Kvemo Kartli region. When he was still a schoolboy, his uncle would humiliate him by coming to school and forcibly cutting his long hair in front of his classmates — who cheered on the humiliation. ‘No one ever un