Opinion

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Ketevan Chachava Illustration: Tamar Shvelidze/OC Media

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

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

by Ketevan Chachava

•5 min read

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

by Ayman Eckford

•10 min read

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

by Bahruz Samadov

•5 min read

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

2024 Georgian Parliamentary Elections

Opinion | Georgia’s queerphobic laws are a clear step towards authoritarianism

by Aia Beraia

•4 min read

Following in well-established authoritarian footsteps, Georgia’s introduction of anti-queer laws are set to have dire consequences for the country’s democracy. In June 2024, Georgia’s ruling party introduced a package of anti-queer laws, passing the bill in its first of three parliamentary readings. The package prohibits gay marriage, gender transition, and queer adoption, as well as ‘LGBT propaganda’, the latter an onerously vague term. [Read more: Explainer | What’s in Georgia’s new

China

Opinion | Georgia’s one-sided relationship with China comes with significant risks

by Tinatin Khidasheli

•5 min read

The Georgian Government has increasingly moved to strengthen relations with China, hailing the economic potential of the partnership including high-profile infrastructure projects. But despite the optimism, the relationship has so far remained almost entirely one-sided, and in fact, opens the country up to substantial new risks. Georgia’s foreign strategic alignment has been profoundly influenced by its geopolitical location, historical context, and aspirations for closer integration with West

Azerbaijan

Opinion | Four years of entrapment: why Azerbaijan’s land borders remain closed

by Javid Agha

•8 min read

Four years since the coronavirus pandemic began, Azerbaijan’s land borders remain closed to all civilian traffic. While officially this is to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a number of theories exist regarding the real reason behind the measure. In the spring of 2020, Azerbaijan followed the example of many other countries, closing its land borders to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus, alongside a host of other preventive measures. Later the same year, the Second Nagorno-Kar

Georgia

Opinion | Georgia’s minimum wage is stuck in the 90s

by Jeff Vize

•3 min read

Georgia has come a long way since the 1990s, a decade marred by civil war, political instability, and a faltering economy. But there’s one area where the country has, quite literally, remained stuck in that distant past: its minimum wage. Georgia’s private sector minimum wage was last updated in 1999, and currently stands at ₾20 ($7.50) per month. That makes it one of the lowest monthly minimum wages in the world — about enough to buy a few litres of milk. Despite broad popular support for