Tbilisi

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Protestor smoking from a makeshift bong as demonstrators demand decriminalisation of drugs in 2014. Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

Analysis

Datablog | How do Georgians feel about drug users?

by Tinatin Bandzeladze

•2 min read

Recent CRRC Georgia data suggests that drug use is still heavily stigmatised in Georgia, with many Georgians preferring to have neighbours with criminal records rather than drug users. Drugs have been slowly but surely finding their way into the everyday lives of Georgians for years now; in 2020 alone, CRRC Data suggested that drug users in Georgia, at a very minimum, spent $1.5 million on drugs through the dark web between February and August. And yet, data from CRRC Georgia’s Caucasus Baro

Mariam Kvaratskhelia and Ani Subeliani. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.

Feature Stories

Tbilisi Pride’s leading women

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•8 min read

Since its inception in 2019, Tbilisi Pride has become one of the most prominent queer organisations in Georgia. Taking the helm at a time of crisis in 2021, Ana Subeliani and Mariam Kvaratskhelia are now steering the organisation through uncharted waters. ‘I have worked in queer activism for years and have always tried to help members of the community, but coming out to my mother as a lesbian was very difficult’, explains 29-year-old Mariam Kvaratskhelia, one of the directors of Tbilisi Pride.

Street art in a Tbilisi underpass. Author unknown. Photo: Tata Shoshiashvili/OC Media.

art

Street art in Georgia: Vandalism or self-expression?

by Tata Shoshiashvili

•4 min read

Not so long ago Georgians would not hide their outrage at the ‘blemish’ of street art on the buildings and alleys of their capital. Now street art is widely accepted as one of the city’s cultural treasures — even as its legality remains murky. Despite the fact that street art in Georgia is a new phenomenon — scarcely 20 years old, it has already become an indelible part of the country’s identity, especially in the capital city of Tbilisi. Initially met with consternation among Tbilisi resi

Abkhazia

Video | No Place to Live — IDPs in Georgia

by Dato Parulava

•0 min read

After almost three decades since the war in Abkhazia, thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are still waiting for the government to provide them with homes. Why are they are still waiting?

Protestors stand near the entrance to Rustaveli Metro Station. Photo: OC Media.

Georgia

In pictures | Black Lives Matter protest in Tbilisi

by OC Media

•3 min read

Several dozen protestors gathered in front of Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Metro Station on 4 June to support the ongoing demonstrations in the United States against racism and police brutality. The protest was composed of demonstrators from Georgia and around the world, including several Americans living in Georgia. They held signs declaring that ‘Black Lives Matter’ and calling for an end to police violence and repression. Demonstrations erupted in hundreds of cities throughout the United States

Freedom Square during curfew. Photo: Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.

COVID-19

In pictures | Tbilisi’s first night under curfew

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•1 min read

The nationwide curfew was announced by the government on 30 March as part of efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. [Read more: Georgia introduces curfew] The government introduced the measure with the sweeping powers granted to the President and Prime Minister when Georgia declared a state of emergency on 21 March. From 21:00-06:00 every day, people will be prohibited from leaving their homes. Anyone caught breaking curfew faces a fine of ₾3,000 ($910) or ₾15,000 ($4,500) f

You can buy a bust of Stalin for ₾40 ($14) on the Samgori second-hand market. Photo: Sofi Mdivnishvili/OC Media.

Economy

In pictures | Struggle in the open-air: Tbilisi’s Navtlughi Bazaar

by Volodymyr Soboliev

•3 min read

The open-air bazaars of Tbilisi began with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, as newly-independent Georgia experienced political and economic turmoil. Having lost their jobs and homes, newly-destitute citizens began selling their possessions as hyperinflation decimated pensions and savings. At the Navtlughi Bazaar in Samgori, different nationalities congregate with the same objectives. Georgians, Russians, Armenians and Azeris work side by side without regard for ethnic ori