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Azerbaijani state media cover Georgian Dream’s pre-election campaign
Breaking news

Azerbaijani state media cover Georgian Dream’s pre-election campaign

Over the last month, Azerbaijan’s official government news agency Azertac has published multiple articles focusing on ethnic Azerbaijani candidates running for the ruling Georgian Dream party, while failing to provide a platform for Azerbaijani opposition candidates.  On 16 October, Azertac interviewed Georgian Dream MP Zaur Darghalli, who said that his party had guaranteed stability in Georgia, and elaborated on how it was able to keep the peace for the last 12 years.  ‘These elections are

2 min read
Illustration: Tamar Shvelidze/OC Media.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Ranking Georgia’s political parties by gender balance in the 2024 elections

Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October, unlike the previous vote, will be held without any gender quotas. As women’s representation in Georgian politics remains an issue, we have examined the electoral lists of all the major parties and groupings and ranked them based on how many women they included — and how highly they were placed. The ruling Georgian Dream party pushed through mandatory gender quotas ahead of the 2020 parliamentary and 2021 local elections in an apparent bid to pro

An Armenian soldier on the border with Azerbaijan. Photo: Tom Videlo/OC Media.
Armenia

Armenia’s ruling party faces criticism over soldier non-combat deaths

Human rights activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan has slammed the Deputy Chair of the Armenian Parliament’s Defence Committee, Armen Khachatryan, for attempting to downplay the responsibility of the authorities in the non-combat deaths of soldiers.  ‘In our civilian life, we have many suicides, we have many accidents. I don’t know why you don’t talk about it, the reasons for those suicides’, Khachatryan said on Tuesday, in response to a question regarding the recent death of a soldier outside of comba

Voice from Gori | ‘There should be more women in the army’
Georgia

Voice from Gori | ‘There should be more women in the army’

Women of Georgia — Nino Bluashvili, 21 ‘Although my father was in the military, we never discussed this topic and I never had any other connection with it in the past. I rarely saw green uniforms at home, either. At first, I was enrolled at the Faculty of Humanities at Tbilisi State University, then I switched to journalism. I was in my first year when one of my friends began studying at the National Defence Academy. I really enjoyed the stories that my friend used to tell me about the aca

Podcasts

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2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Podcast | Georgia gears up for the 2024 parliamentary elections

With Georgia’s parliamentary elections inching closer, both the ruling Georgian Dream party and the many groups representing the opposition are scrambling to prepare for the critical vote on 26 October. This week, OC Media’s Robin Fabbro, Mariam Nikuradze, and Shota Kincha discuss how the pre-election campaign period has been going, claims of electoral violations by Georgian Dream, and the atmosphere in Georgia ahead of the vote. Read more: * Who’s who in Georgia’s pa

In Focus

In Focus

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In Focus

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Illustration: Tamar Shvelidze/OC Media.
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Ranking Georgia’s political parties by gender balance in the 2024 elections

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Georgia’s parliamentary elections on 26 October, unlike the previous vote, will be held without any gender quotas. As women’s representation in Georgian politics remains an issue, we have examined the electoral lists of all the major parties and groupings and ranked them based on how many women they included — and how highly they were placed. The ruling Georgian Dream party pushed through mandatory gender quotas ahead of the 2020 parliamentary and 2021 local elections in an apparent bid to pro

Onise Okriashvili performing at Stand-Up Tbilisi. Photo: Stand-Up Tbilisi.
Feature Stories

A stage for rebellion: stand-up amidst Georgia’s protests 

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As Georgia’s political divides widen and the threat of censorship looms large, the country’s stand-up scene is providing a space for debate, but may now be in the firing line.  ‘So, why aren’t you at the protest?’, asks the voice on the main stage at a bar near Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue. The awkward chuckles of the audience at the open mic night mingle with the sounds of protesters a few streets away.  A protest march against the adoption of the ‘Russian’ or ‘foreign agent’ law atte

A young man stares out at the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh during the mass exodus to Armenia in October 2023. Photo: Marut Vanyan/OC Media.
Armenia

The ‘Black Garden’ becomes ‘a black corner’ for Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians

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One year has passed since the exodus of practically the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh. OC Media reconnected with refugees interviewed in the immediate aftermath to hear how they are a year on. On 19 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched its last large-scale military offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, calling it an ‘anti-terrorist operation’. Days later, the region came under the full control of Azerbaijan.  Armenians living in the region had not expected such an outcome, continuing to wait

Shukruti protesters sleeping under rain outside the parliament. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
Chiatura Manganese Mines

Dying on the steps of parliament — Georgia’s Shukrutians make last bid for their homes

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After over a month on hunger strike, mostly on the steps of Georgia’s parliament, residents of the village of Shukruti are facing declining health and plummeting temperatures, with little hope of saving their village from destruction.  ‘I don’t think I’ll witness my child growing up. I don’t have much energy left in me, maybe a few days? I don’t know’, says Giorgi Bitsadze, 33.  Bitsadze has always been the funny one, cracking endless jokes to friends, family, and anyone he happens to meet.

Opinion

Ketevan Chachava Illustration: Tamar Shvelidze/OC Media
2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Opinion | Georgia’s new electronic voting system comes with risks

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The deployment of new electronic voting systems in Georgia as the country faces a critical election brings with it a number of risks.  With less than a month to go before the 2024 parliamentary elections on 26 October, Georgia’s voters are facing a critical juncture with the potential to transform the country’s immediate and long-term future. Alongside an unprecedented political landscape and a first ever fully proportional election, voters will also be faced with large-scale use of electron

The author, and a Ukrainian-Chechen protest in Sheffield.
Chechnya

Opinion | Fighting on two fronts: Chechen activists in the West

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Exiled from their republic due to threats to their lives, Chechen activists in the West navigate a difficult balance between visibility and caution, facing erasure by both Russian and Western society. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might offer Chechnya and its activists a shift in the tides.  ‘Ukraine’s incredible incursion into the Kursk region made me finally believe that Russia could soon be defeated’. This is what Ali Bakaev, a Chechen online activist who now lives in London tells m

Erdogan and Aliyev. Illustration: Tamar Shvelidze/OC Media
Azerbaijan–Israel Relations

Opinion | Azerbaijan’s cooling relations with Turkey

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Bahruz Samadov submitted this article shortly before his arrest on 21 August. He was charged with treason on 23 August, and could face 12–20 years in prison or a life sentence if found guilty. Despite long being ‘brotherly’ nations, the Israel-Gaza war appears to have exacerbated existing tensions between Turkey and Azerbaijan, potentially pushing the two countries apart irrevocably.  In recent months, relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey have been uncharacteristically cool. To observers