Batumi

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Adjara

Ruling party boycotts Batumi City Council

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

Georgian Dream councilors have boycotted Batumi City Council, preventing the council from appointing a head as well as voting to annul the annual city budget approved by the outgoing council last month. On Thursday, councilors from Georgian Dream did not show up to an extraordinary council meeting, denying the council the quorum needed to vote for its chairperson for the second time. Batumi, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, is among just 20 cities and municipalities where Ge

Batumi

Opinion | The far-reaching reasons for the Batumi tragedy

by Irakli Zhvania

•6 min read

In October, a residential building collapsed in Batumi taking the lives of nine people including three children. While the authorities have moved to identify the individual culprits behind the collapse, the explanations for the disaster go far deeper. As details emerged on 11 October from local residents, it became clear that construction work was ongoing on the ground floor of the building on Batumi’s 26 May Street prior to its collapse. The Prosecutor’s Office quickly moved to charge three

Adjara

Natia Kapanadze dismissed as Adjara TV director

by OC Media

•3 min read

Natia Kapanadze has been dismissed from her position as director of Adjara TV, a public broadcaster in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, after four out of five members of the channel’s Advisory Board passed a motion of no confidence against her. Kapanadze has pledged to appeal the board’s decision in court. Kapanadze had held the position since 2016; her term as director was set to expire in eight months. Deputy director Natia Zoidze will take over as acting director until the board dec

Batumi

In pictures | Ghost apartments and hyperbuilding in Batumi

by Ian McNaught Davis

•7 min read

Since 2008, the port city of Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast has attracted visitors with the bright lights of tourism, trade, and gambling. Soaring tourism statistics in the popular casino town has brought with it a construction boom — one that seemingly has no end in sight. Rampant construction on vacant patches of land punctuates the city of 160,000. The echoes of jackhammering and grinding ricochet off the multi-story high-rise buildings that continue to sprout into Batumi’s skyline.

Batumi

[Voice from Batumi] Women of Georgia — Natso Beridze-Gabaidze, 33

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•7 min read

Women in Georgia very often lack a voice of their own. Their opinions, feelings, dreams, aspirations, and achievements can be conveyed by others, often the men around them. The Women in Georgia project gives a voice to these women, allowing them to tell their own stories — in their own words. The project collected 150 distinct stories from women throughout the country. OC Media brings you a selection of these stories, translated into English and Russian. Below, in her own words, Natso Beridze

Adjara

Gülen school manager arrested after Turkish PM’s Tbilisi visit

by OC Media

•2 min read

A manager at the Private Demirel College, a school linked to Turkish opposition political figure Fethullah Gülen, has been detained in Tbilisi. Mustafa Emre Çabuk was detained on 24 May for ‘supporting a terrorist organisation’ allegedly upon Turkey’s request. Tbilisi City Court ordered the provisional detention of Çabuk for three months on 25 May. ‘I have never been convicted in Georgia or in Turkey. I have never worn even a knife and they are accusing me of being a member of terrorist o

Batumi

Two men arrested for ‘organising Batumi riot’

by OC Media

•2 min read

Former member of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party, Irakli Chkhirkvia, and the head of the Anti-Corruption Information Centre, a local anti-graft group, Merab Ghoghoberidze were arrested on 23 April for ‘organising a riot’, more than a month after violence rocked Georgia’s port city of Batumi. Merab Ghoghoberidze was detained on 23 April for ‘disobeying the police’ after being fined for not wearing a seatbelt. Local magazine, Batumelebi, reported that he was taken to Ba