A big question hangs over the quality of democracy in Georgia. On the paper all looks good: the country is governed by the champion of the democratic revolution and an erudite western educated lawyer Mikheil Saakashvili. There ![dsc00516mn4[1]](http://blogs.tol.org/conflicts/files/2008/07/dsc00516mn41.jpg)
are institutions that are supposed to safeguard collective decision making and ensure justice in the society. There is also free media and opposition…
There are however serious shortcomings. A word or two on what Georgia’s leadership thinks of the quality of democracy:
Take the only independent TV channel in the country: Kavkasia TV that broadcasts only in the capital — a clearly pro-opposition channel. Although open to the authorities’ participation in frequent political debates, invitations usually remain unanswered.
Recently the management of the TV station (a handful of workers all together), have complained that the authorities pressure the businesses to withdraw advertisements so as to choke the channel financially. Georgia’s Public Defender Sozar Subari, too, has alleged that the authorities are working to undermine the channel — but unlike killing off the Imedi TV using SWAT forces a few months ago, Kavkasia TV is targeted in a less obvious way.
Here comes the part with democracy: the journalist of Kavkasia TV was able to ask president Saakashvili himself on why authorities are trying to shut down the channel, which surprised the president:
What kind of problems? What kind of problems does the Kavkasia TV in particular face?… all the illusions about restriction of freedom of expression or as if there was some tabooed issues, have disappeared… We have no experience of democracy culture and we should work much over it.
In other words, problems with the Kavkasia TV and in general, media in Georgia, have something to do with the culture of democracy… Not very clear, but, fine… young democracy in it’s baby steps is sure to have problems with media — although, it would be hard to find similar “problems” with media in the Eastern Europe. Anyways — a few weeks later, Saakashvili backtracked on his critical remarks about the democracy he is building himself, calling it Georgia’s main “wealth“:
The fact that the Georgian people managed to hold two elections democratically, the fact that the Georgian people managed to overcome the crisis in a dignified manner, gives us today our major weapon for protection; our major weapon is not tanks and cannons – we can not compare in this regard with those people who threaten us – our major weapon is that we are a democratic and successful state.
Therefore, Georgia’s main weapon against the ill-wishers is democracy; just it lacks culture. Interestingly, other officials within the Georgian administration see problems the country faces externally through the lenses of democracy’s ideological struggle with authoritarianism and dictatorship — take Nika Rurua, deputy chairman of the parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, explaining Russia’s aggressive stance towards Georgia:
Russia remains a country that is afraid to have free and democratic states as its neighbors. And, in fact, what is suitable for the entire civilized, free world, is not suitable for Russia. Progressive countries of the world see NATO expansion as an expansion of democracy, free space, transparent and open societies. Russia is afraid of this.
Continue reading ‘Culture of Democracy in Georgia’
Nino Burjanadze, the former Saakashvili’s frontline guru and the parliament speaker is back into the Georgian politics after a brief retirement motivated 
by a power sharing bust up with the ex-boss Saakashvili.
Burjanadze established a foundation that in theory aims to help the Georgian democracy develop, thrive, prosper, propel and vive. In short, she seeks to re-establish her presence and articulate her motivations in a way that would be more meaningful than being some else’s spokesperson or a secretary.
A bit harsh, but let’s face it: although once a leader of the Rose Revolution 4 years ago, Nino Burjanadze has repeatedly failed to gain ground within the authorities’ power echelons.
Although a soft spoken intellectual and an able debater, Burjanadze has failed overall to make a personal impact. Take this for example: [let’s pretend the parliamentary elections in Georgia were carried out without major violations]: Burjanadze left the ruling party just before the parliamentary elections and still her former party gained more than 80% as a result!
Once the “iron lady”, Burjanadze seeks to use her “foundation” to squeeze into big politics in the future. She even went as far as saying that “Georgians cannot be happy with the level of democracy in Georgia”, almost forgetting that she herself was the co-creator of the same democracy she criticizes now.
But, to be fair, changes in politics come from the most unexpected places: take the former defense minister Irakli Okruashvili — an avid National Movement member in the past and now turned critic of his former boss Saakashvili — is an example of how things can turn upside-down.
Most probably, Georgia’s western friends need to see a viable political opposition there. The entire political standoff over the last few months has shown many shortcomings in the once “beacon of democracy” — and more importantly, it has made it obvious that there is lack of a viable alternative to Saakashvili’s government. [For why, refer to the oppositions’ chronicles of screw ups and extraordinary anti-team work throughout the months’ long crisis].
So, this is the niche the “wanna-be iron lady” wishes to occupy. Best of luck to her. Although, before she even unveiled her gradual roadmap towards re-grabbing some power bits and pieces, a curious event was reported in the press: for her service to “the Georgian people”, Saakashvili personally signed an order to award Nino with property valued at several million $$$.
The future wanna-be opposition leader gladly accepted the gift, pretending there was absolutely nothing wrong with taking a practical bribe and a future prospect for controversy (if needed, of course). [kviris palitra, July 11].
So, yeah, best of luck to her… Maybe Burjanadze’s foundation can contribute to the democracy in Georgia more than effectively she did during her tenure as the second person in the government.
The conflict zones continue to heat up as incidents and “provocations” take place on weekly basis. Abkhazia and South Ossetia fear war. There is suspicion in Georgia that Russia is annexing those territories though carrying out its plan of “providing social assistance to its citizens”. Russia has many other things on mind.
A few days ago, the Georgian special forces showed some skills of “adequately reacting” to one of those “provocations”:
Georgian nationwide TV stations – Rustavi 2 TV, Mze TV and public TV - aired footage on June 17 showing several plain clothes Georgian security officers and several patrol policemen dragging two Russian peacekeepers from their truck, forcing them to lie on the ground, swearing at them and then pushing them into police cars.
There were other episodes in the past when the Russian peacekeepers were handled roughly in front of the TV cameras. It is always an interesting coincidence just how those journalists appear at the right place and at the right time (usually in the middle of nowhere or near some village close to 
conflict zones). Maybe the Rustavi 2 journalists camp around the area to catch a glimpse of action or maybe they are invited in advance.
In any case. If there is an interaction between Georgians, Abkhaz, South Ossetians and Russians, it is likely to have a negative connotation like incident, provocation, warning, lost drones, etc. If there were any real moves to actually resolve the conflicts, different events would come under public scrutiny. This shows just how Georgia does not have any meaningful strategy to resolve these issues outside the usual format of protesting the infringement of territorial integrity or getting “friends” to react to Russia’s dangerous moves.
So what is the plan? Some thoughts on the ‘to do list’:
- Portray the Russian peacekeepers as a source of instability.
- Get peacekeepers from a more neutral side to patrol the conflict zones.
- Remind the western countries that in case of war they would have to deal with it somehow.
- Find more allies who would condemn Russia’s moves on regular basis.
- Show the separatists they are messing with the wrong guys.
- Use the tensions in the conflict zones to discredit the domestic opposition (very helpful during the elections). Ex: why don’t you protest in front of the Russian embassy instead of the Georgian parliament? Or, we are practically at war, and you are discrediting our international image.
- Promise the impossible.
- (more?)
Actually resolving the issues with the Abkhaz and South Ossetians is not really a top priority. At least it must be a well hidden one. “Russia’s hand” behind things is good and complex enough to deal with…
So how will conflicts be resolved this way?
Georgia’s public defender evaluated the recent parliamentarian elections in Georgia as the “worst in the country’s history”. Unlike previous falsifications, 
this time the state resources were directed at intimidating, blackmailing or bribing the voters — says Sozar Subari in an interview with the Georgian newspaper Asaval-dasavali.
The international organizations observing the elections, of course, noticed progress, albeit “uneven implementation” of previous recommendations. Some careful diplomatic jumba-jamba, some pretending not to have seen things, and Georgia is a democracy — in a special category. Other countries praised Georgia for conducting the elections in a peaceful manner(?). It could mean, for example, no acts of cannibalism took place at the polling stations.
As a result, the champions of Rose Revolution — an event symbolizing the “real” democratic revolution in the country — are proudly representing the bribed, blackmailed or intimidated populations’ interest with well over 80% in the parliament. What does the “population” know about the country’s interests?
Protests, mass demonstrations, hunger strikes did not help. With a stroke of good luck and “surprising support form the population” things just turned out the right way for the authorities.
In the meantime, US department noted “lack of credible opposition” in Georgia. During both elections in Georgia, unprecedented number of people demonstrated against the authorities. During the presidential elections marred with “irregularities”, the opposition candidates together ![2007_09_28t102627_450x301_us_georgia_opposition[1]](http://blogs.tol.org/conflicts/files/2008/06/2007-09-28t102627-450x301-us-georgia-opposition1.jpg)
got a little less than 50% of votes.
Yet, there is no credible opposition — maybe finding one would help… what a coincidence — the former parliament chairwoman and ruling party guru Nino Burjanadze is establishing a “Democracy Foundation”. Maybe she could be the credible, constructive and cooperative opposition (at least in public, for the democracy’s sake).
… And you get a democracy decorated with opposition, parliament and even media. Success story.
“Prime-time” is a popular political talk show hosted by the former Imedi TV journalist Inga Grigolia. This is the only TV program in Georgia that 
broadcasts live debates between the opposition and authorities. Some call it Georgia’s “only island of free speech”.
Needless to say, the bi-weekly evening show attracts a lot of interest. Recently it has been announced that the show will not broadcast for at least a month, as the European football championship broadcasts will be in time conflict with the show. Of course, no other times were found to air the program — that would mess up the whole soap opera schedule.
Georgia’s public defender Sozar Subari has evaluated media trends as “grave”, saying that besides one or two exceptions, there is no free electronic media in Georgia.
Overall, media freedom has been steadily declining since the pro-Western-educated-lawyer (ironic title) Mikheil Saakashvili gained power through peaceful regime change in 2003 – the event trendily coined as “Rose Revolution”. Many TV stations were either shut down or brought under government control. Such are today’s major TV stations Rustavi 2 – former “peoples’ television” and spearhead of the Rose revolution, Mze and Public Broadcaster.
Last November, Special Forces shut down Imedi TV during live broadcast. The television station has been in center of controversy ever since and due to shady reasons (likely the authorities) has transformed into an entertainment portal.
Georgian newspapers and Internet media are more or less free. For how long, that’s another question.
Free media is fundamental to democracy – it provides checks and balances that are essential for responsible governance. Without this, abuse of power is inevitable.
Controlled Georgian media tends to disseminate propaganda and eschew facts about the conflict zones in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. During the elections, the “incidents in the conflict zones” got a thorough coverage. Usually, the journalists appear in the most unlikely situations — take Khurcha incident, where peaceful Georgian voters were supposedly fired upon by the Abkhaz militias: the journalists were on the spot awaiting to interview the crowd when the shooting broke out. Isn’t that lucky? Or, when Russian peacekeepers were detained drunk driving — the journalists were there to catch the Georgian Special Forces drag out the Russian peacekeeper from the vehicle. There are many other instances.
Continue reading ‘Forget politics, watch football’
I went to see the documentary The Lost Colony today by the Dutch film-maker Astrid Bussink. It is about the Sukhumi Primate Centre, which is the oldest in the world, which was the site of major research in the Soviet period but which has had to cease most activities since the war. The documentary covers the weeks up to the small international conference which was organised there in 2007 on the occasion of the institute’s 80th birthday. There is also a side-story of a man who goes out into the woods every two or three weeks with food for the monkeys he supposes still roam the area since they escaped/were let loose during the war.
I liked the film very much, it gave me a very good spherical impression of the place (and of Sukhumi). There was an interview with the film-maker afterwards, and one of the points that came up was that her style is more ‘filmy’ than journalistic. So if you go to see it, don’t expect a full coverage of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict for example. Go see it for the wonderful insight it provides into one place and the people that work there.
For more information: http://www.lostcolony.nl
The election period in Georgia was marred by media reports and speculations of external threats and aggression coming from Russia/Abkhazia. On the election day, two busses carrying ethnic Georgians from the Abkhaz side were hit by grenades - an incident widely covered by the Georgian media.
Human Right Center in Georgia ran a report on this incident and raised disturbing questions regarding the authenticity of “separatists attempting to kill Georgians” who wanted to participate in the elections. Read the report here.
Even Georgia’s President “Misha” was surprised at the results his party got in the parliamentary elections held on 21st of May. It seems the National Movement’s offensive of promises to the electorate worked magic: a tiny town of Poti on the black sea is to become a new Bahrain, or Dubai at worst, the pension will be increased to 100$, in 50 month time there will be almost no unemployment, every house will have gas and electricity, Georgia will be a major exporter of airplanes to the West and of course, the country will “get back” the separatist Abkhaz and South Ossetians within a few months.
Almost forgot, a slogan “deeds instead of words” coupled with heroics against the filthy Russians really helped to sway the voters.
According the preliminary results the pro-western-US-educated-lawyer Misha’s party is making a landslide with 60% of votes in their favor. In the morning the chief assessed that his party might even get the constitutional majority. What this means, is that the party will cut and paste constitution at its will without caring for anyones’ opinion — pretty much what has been taking place for the last 4 years.
Interestingly, Misha himself was having an election in January and got only 52% in his favor — apparently his party is more popular than him (many observers expected the exact opposite). In addition, his #1 leader and a softy Nino Burjanadze in a surprise move abandoned his boat just before the submission of the final party list. That was supposed to be a major setback… but, as it turns out — its not.
Even more interestingly — the National Movement’s faces are much less popular than those of the opposition. Say, the Republican Party’s cadres in no way can be matched by the National Movements’ rookies (the party recently underwent a major change as its leaders did much to irritate even the most ardent supporters). But, apparently politics is full of surprises!
The parliamentary elections results are magical. 
Everything started form the crisis last November when Misha squashed protests against him, closed down the opposition leaning Imedi TV and called for snap presidential elections. Strangely, the protesters actually demanded to hold the parliamentary elections this Spring. Instead, they were harshly beaten up, stuffed with a snap presidential elections and parliamentary elections in May.
In the meantime a critic and a billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili died from a heart attack (somehow everyone forgets to ask what is happening with the toxicology expertise) and Imedi TV is no longer functioning.
Judging from the results, it turns out that Misha’a mandate somehow got more reassurance in the parliamentary elections he wanted to avoid so much…
An expert in telling audiences what they want to hear, he has already stuffed some of his contemplations into the Western journalists mouths:
“I didn’t expect to recover so well after the political crisis we had last year,” he said by telephone. “We wanted a new mandate for reforms, and it looks like we’ve got it.” [read: the crisis in November was mainly because people were unhappy with reforms (and not say, injustice and centralization of power), but our reinvigorated program has won the electorates’ hearts back].
Continue reading ‘The most democratic elections in Georgia’
Just a follow up on the last post: here is a promise Mr. Saakashvili has made during the last elections in January. Maybe it should be noted as historical as well:
I promise you – and this is not a promise made as part of a pre-election campaign - if the January 5 elections are held normally, we will spend next winter in a warmer climate; we will be back in our homes. I promise this to you and I guarantee this. I have never before said anything more concrete. […]
I want to promise you that in the nearest future – I was thinking of doing that in my first presidential term, but because of well known reasons, I have cut that term – so in the nearest future, I mean in the next few months, I am not saying years, we, along with the international community, will create conditions for your return to Abkhazia in safety and dignity.
So, don’t get the illusion that it had anything to do with the elections — it was all a part of the plan, and had it not been for the November chaos, Abkhazia would be back into Georgia within a few months. Uhh, that treacherous opposition…
But, really, a simple question: HOW? At best, there is no answer because this grand plan would unveil the secret peaceful offensive Georgia holds to win over the Abkhaz population in a matter of weeks. In other words, two societies divided by war for about 20 years will come together very rapidly, unexpectedly and swiftly.
I wonder why Saakashvili is usually mentioned as “pro-Western” and not as “populist who has a few more weeks left to reunite his country”.
By the way, it already has been 4 months since his promise, and I guess Saakashvili’s promise will expire in 8 months the latest — as in 8 months “the few months” will be a year. There was one guy in Georgia — Irakli Okruashvili — the former Defense Minister and now Saakashvili’s bitter run-away-critic who promised to regain another separatist enclave South Ossetia before the New Year. For some reason, every time his name used to be mentioned, it was in the context of his pledge to regain control over South Ossetia. I wonder why the “pro-Western” Saakashvili does not get the same introduction. What, he is not taken seriously? Really?
The closer the elections, the more “historical days” are being proclaimed by the Georgian authorities. Actually, historizing dates is a common trend even outside the elections.
On May 15, UN General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the right of the Georgian IDPs to return to their homes in Abkhazia. Of the 192 countries in the Assembly, 14 voted for, 11 against and the rest either 
abstained or didn’t bother to show up for the hearings.
Here is a list of Georgia’s mighty friends:
Albania, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine and United States.
here are those who voted against:
Armenia, Belarus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Myanmar, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela.
Others who didn’t care to join the resolution: Germany, France, Great Britain, etc. — basically many of the heavyweights. But, regardless of the voting tally, Saakashvili called this resolution a historic one:
“Yesterday the UN General Assembly passed a historical declaration on ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia and on the rights of refugees to return to their homes and receive back their property.”
It is likely the resolution will remain as a mere concept — after all, 14 countries seem to be really bothered by the fate of Georgian IDPs (some of those countries primarily want their refugees to return to their home: Azerbaijan). Yet, there is optimism, where normally would be concern: what is Georgia doing wrong that even on high moral ground as return of the refugees, it is not gaining that much of support?
This April Georgia was refused MAP (Membership Act Plan) to join the NATO, and instead was given a vague promise to be accepted in the “future” through a “communiqué”. Guess what? Saakashvili:
Today is a historical day for us, for our country, for this organization. It is equal to a geo-political revolution… When I first attended the NATO summit four years ago, I could not even dream about it… Now it is no longer about whether; we will become a NATO member soon, much sooner than some skeptics think.”
I always thought that NATO’s close ties with Georgia — monitoring programs, checking the military standards, a lot of $$$ etc. were all directed towards preparing Georgia for membership — but apparently Georgia’s entry was uncertain before this historical communiqué… Can’t help thinking about Turkey who is promised to be accepted into EU for decades now.
Then there was a ceremony of Georgian army switching from Kalashnikovs to M4 carabine assault rifles.
Today is a historical day for the Georgian armed forces. We have started to switch to western weapons. Starting from today, we will use the best weapon in the world – the M4 assault rifle.
Would make a nice day off: The Day when we switched to M4.
There were many more similar historical instances of course. I wonder if the frequency of historical dates is proportional to lowering confidence in the authorities? So many historical dates, and yet…
Here is an article by The Economist on the recent tensions in Georgia’s conflict zones. A few remarks:
The article suggests that tensions in Abkhazia can be explained not by the apprehension of Georgia attacking Abkhazia, but quite the opposite — Russia’a attempt to re-establish control over the tiny Georgian controlled territory of Kodori Gorge.
In other words, it’s Russia that could be preparing for military adventure 
into Kodori gorge which “would humiliate, perhaps topple, Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili.”
From the start, a very unlikely interpretation: Russia would not risk international attention to retake a tiny Kodori Gorge (basically a few villages) by force. What would be the urgency of that altogether? — Georgia has been in control of that territory for around 2 years now, and therefore it is unclear why the Russians would strike now — before the elections in Georgia.
If that were to happen, Saakashvili’s regime would be in fact bolstered if anything. The “toppling part” is simply out of question — how would that happen? What, angry crowds would demand back the Kodori Gorge villages and through chanting for Saakashvili’s resignation overthrow the regime?
On the other hand, if that attack were to take place, Saakashvili would rally both the international community and even those who bitterly oppose him under the call to unite in face of Russia’s open military aggression. Most political forces in Georgia would be likely to forget about their hatred towards Saakashvili (I think hatred is right word to describe a big part of the oppositions’ attitude towards the “pro-Western” Saakashvili, and not because he is pro-Western).
In fact many of Saakashvili loud (and mostly scandalous) accusations against Russia would gain credibility — even his claims that Russia masterminded the protest last November which was eventually brutally dispersed.
It is therefore unclear how the author of the article predicts that Russia plans to attack Kodori Gorge so as to topple the pro-Western Saakashvili.
Luckily, the author does mention that in less than a week from today, there will be parliamentary elections in Georgia.
Continue reading ‘The Economist on Georgia’
Every so often it seems, mysterious incidents involving flying object happen in the conflict zones, and usually, the sides involved vehemently disagree about what happened. International investigations are announced but these are either not heard from again or they come up with inconclusive results. The latest such events involve the unmanned spy planes, or drones, that the Georgian side says it uses to monitor Abkhazian and Russian troop movements. Every week or so the Abkhazian side claims to have shot down one or two and so far, except in one instance, the Georgian side has denied this. It claims that only in one case, a drone was shot down, by the Russians, not the Abkhazians, and that the other claims are made only to cover this up. It seems that this cannot continue forever. If the Abkhazians continue to report drone downings, then there will come a day when one side’s account is exposed as false. If the Abkhazian side is right, this could be uncomfortable for the Georgians, because it means that the Abkhazians were free to shoot down Georgian military equipment worth lots of $$ per piece at liberty.
Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili bore a fascinating speech two days ago. Saakashvili called on the Abkhaz and South Ossetian populations to “fight the outrageous and irresponsible force” – Russia.
President’s address comes on the background of Russia’s decision to lift embargo from the de facto statelets and establish legal ties with Georgia’s rebel provinces.
Most in Abkhazia and South Ossetia see this as an opportunity to shake off isolation and thus improve living standards. On the other hand, Russia’s move is also perceived as a “step closer to international recognition” - a much desired outcome for the separatist provinces.
It is therefore hardly conceivable why the happy Abkhaz and South Ossetians would forget about their ambitions for independence, unite with Georgia and resist Russia – country that practically holds all the keys to their survival.
Saakashvili underlined that the “reign of separatist, corrupted and criminal groups” is not a choice of the population living there — meaning that decisions against the Georgian statehood are made somewhere else.
This perception sinks into a comforting fantasy: the Abkhaz and South Ossetians are confused, brainwashed allies who really wish to participate in Georgian state building, but their Russian-puppet leadership prevents them from pursuing their true desires. This view is unfortunately far from reality.
Many agree that in fact the new Abkhaz generation is far more radical than the “war generation” of the 1990s. For a good place to follow a dialogue between Georgians and Abkhaz, visit http://cyxymu.livejournal.com/
Continue reading ‘What a speech, what an audience and what results!’
![dsc00516mn4[1]](http://images.google.hu/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/_sHxm04IJHWk/SAN9rxc6X7I/AAAAAAAAAHU/ujVJTQ4zuhU/s400/dsc00516mn4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://4rights.blogspot.com/2008/04/tv-station-protests-over-refusal-on.html&h=300&w=400&sz=26&hl=hu&start=1&sig2=DvNnitRPOFQkuYfTTRBeag&tbnid=bu14GSPGXDFoAM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&ei=TdaBSMidJaiaxAHxqOTQCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfreedom%2Bof%2Bspeech%2Bmaestro%2Btbilisi%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dhu)
are institutions that are supposed to safeguard collective decision making and ensure justice in the society. There is also free media and opposition… 
![2007_09_28t102627_450x301_us_georgia_opposition[1]](http://images.google.hu/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/__2BT-MDIzWw/Rv1jtf-mgOI/AAAAAAAAAGY/9m0wQ_gTp3w/s320/2007_09_28t102627_450x301_us_georgia_opposition.jpg&imgrefurl=http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2007/09/turmoil-in-georgia.html&h=214&w=320&sz=25&hl=hu&start=1&sig2=JtjbjNYdbe_d1GdAp2ly3A&tbnid=pdBm2Xi6-fZDRM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=118&ei=O1hbSMDlIpXg1wbas72IDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgeorgia%2Bopposition%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dhu)
