Russian Duma MP Sergey Gavrilov addressing the Georgian parliament. (1TV)
The appearance of a Russian Duma MP in the Georgian Parliamentary chair seat has triggered protests across Georgia as politicians from both opposition and ruling parties condemned the action. Sergey Gavrilov, who was escorted out of parliament, warned that ‘negotiations on humanitarian-economic issues between the two countries may fail’ due to the incident. [Read more…]
(Photo: Valeriy Sharifulin / Tass)
The ruling United Ossetia Party has lost their majority in South Ossetia’s parliament, winning just 14 of 34 seats.
[Read more…]
(OC Media)
Armenia has abstained from voting on a UN resolution calling for the return of IDPs to Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the first time since 2008, when the resolution was first introduced. Armenia had previously always voted against the resolution in the annual votes at the UN General Assembly. [Read more…]
(Illustration: Dato Parulava/OC Media)
The Kodori Valley, populated mainly by Svans, was the only corner of Abkhazia under Georgian Government control before the August 2008 War. According to the Tbilisi-based Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, around 2,860 people lived in the valley before the war, all of whom fled their homes. Only 55 families have returned; Raisa Khachvani, 62, is still waiting to do so. [Read more…]
Lika Managadze (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
On 16 March, the bodies of 12 people who died during the 1992–1993 conflict in Abkhazia were returned to their families. Lika Managadze, whose father Akaki was among the dead, reflects on her memories of her father and how the war shaped the course of her life. [Read more…]
(RFE/RL)
A Georgian citizen has died in detention in Abkhazia’s eastern Gali District after being arrested for ‘illegally crossing the border’. According to Abkhazian officials, 29-year-old Irakli Kvaratskhelia hanged himself at a Russian border service unit where he was taken to file documents. [Read more…]
‘My Soviet childhood was very happy. I thought that my whole life would be like a fairy tale. But the fairy tale ended abruptly.’
Thomas de Waal is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, a London-based think tank.
Thomas de Waal, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and a prolific writer on the South Caucasus recently sat down with OC Media. He discussed democracy in Abkhazia and the international community’s role there, and the recent thaw in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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…]
