OC Insider

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The day riot police poisoned me

•3 min read

On 28 November 2024, after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the halting of Georgia’s EU-integration process, I went to cover the ensuing protest. As the crowd grew bigger and bigger outside the parliament building located on Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue, riot police took different spots around it. As it neared midnight, they began to disperse the demonstrators. I was on the fountain structure outside the parliament building trying to document a water cannon targeting camera ope

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Azerbaijan has reached ‘peace’ — why is Bahruz Samadov still in prison?

by Aytan Farhadova

•2 min read

Political scientist and OC Media contributor Bahruz Samadov, who is serving a sentence of 15 years in prison on charges of treason at the Umbaki facility in the suburbs of Baku, reminds me of Stefan Zweig’s main character, Jacob Mendel, from his short story Buchmendel. During WWI, Mendel, a Russian Jew born along the Russian–Polish border, resides in Vienna without any documentation, his life wholly consisting of books. When he is falsely accused of collaborating with enemies of the Austro-Hung

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Marking the anniversary of Georgian protests (and accelerated authoritarianism)

by Mikheil Gvadzabia

•3 min read

A year has passed since Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party halted the country’s bid for EU membership — a move that immediately sparked a massive, nationwide protest movement that, despite relentless state pressure and shrinking in size, continues to this day. Honestly speaking, without any theatrics: I can’t really believe I’m writing this. Partly because it’s hard to realise that such a long, heavy year has gone by so quickly. And second, it’s astonishing to see how the country has changed

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Brussels’ deadlock: EU diplomats on Georgia’s uncertain future

by Tamar Shvelidze

•3 min read

Brussels’ deadlock: EU diplomats on Georgia’s uncertain future In early November, as the EU released its latest enlargement report — describing Georgia as ‘a candidate country on paper only’ — I travelled to Brussels with several other journalists from Georgian online media platforms. During the five-day press trip, organised by the EU Delegation to Georgia, we met with EU officials and diplomats from member states and had a chance to ask them questions about how they see the next steps with G

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Tucker Carlson brings the ‘war on Christianity’ to the Caucasus

by Nate Ostiller

•3 min read

There is so much wrong with Tucker Carlson’s recent episode on Armenia — featuring Narek Kareptyan, the nephew of jailed Russian-Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan and his amoral, opportunistic lawyer Robert Amsterdam — that it is hard to know where to begin. I think part of the reason I’m writing this newsletter is to put my thoughts on paper about the literal torrent of misinformation and false narratives contained in the episode (and to spare my coworkers, who are probably tired of hearing me

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Ivanishvili’s ‘Georgian Dream’ of a populist right-wing Europe

by Robin Fabbro

•1 min read

When the European Council presented their latest enlargement report on Tuesday, no one was surprised by what was said about Georgia. EU enlargement chief Marta Kos called it ‘the worst enlargement report for any candidate country ever’. The response from the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, was also fairly typical. He accused the Brussels deep state/global war party of orchestrating a coup attempt, of financing radicalism, of blackmail — all par for the course. He also a

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Five years of loneliness

by Elizaveta Chukharova

•2 min read

It must be nice to come home when you live in another city. Your family welcomes you, sets the table — you bring them gifts. Then you visit friends, and walk along the familiar streets from your childhood, breathing in the scent of freshly fallen leaves. You drink tea or wine together and remember what it was like to be teenagers. Unfortunately, such a feeling is unknown to me. I left Vladikavkaz in 2020 and haven’t been home since. Meeting my loved ones has become a kind of quest — I can’t go