The family of Mustafa Emre Çabuk, a manager at the Private Demirel College who was detained in Tbilisi on Turkey’s request, is asking for protection from Georgia’s State Security Service, after receiving several threats on social media.
Çabuk’s wife, Tuba Çabuk, claims to have been receiving threats on her social media profiles from accounts with Turkish names, and is asking for protection. Çabuk’s lawyer, Soso Baratashvili said on 3 July that he will appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office and ask them to allocate guards to Çabuk’s family.
Baratashvili has submitted additional documents to the Ministry of Refugees, urging the Georgian authorities to accept Mustafa Emre Çabuk’s application for asylum.
Baratashvili told Georgian media outlet Netgazeti that the documents he submitted include ‘requests from international human rights organisations’ to grant his request.
Amnesty International said in a brief report released on 26 May that the manager is at ‘imminent risk of extradition to Turkey, where he is at risk of torture and other grave human rights violations’.
Baratashvili said that the additional documents include statements and assessments from Georgia’s Public Defender, and also a ‘description of torture of people who are accused of cooperating with Fethullah Gülen’.
Çabuk was detained in Tbilisi on 24 May, accused by Turkey of ‘supporting a terrorist organisation’. Tbilisi City Court ordered Çabuk’s provisional detention for three months, and he remains in custody.
Later in June, Georgia temporarily halted extradition procedures against Çabuk, while the Ministry of Refugees started considering his application for asylum. If Çabuk’s asylum request is denied, the extradition process will continue, however, if he is granted refugee status, he will be released from custody. While the ministry is discussing Çabuk’s refugee status he cannot be extradited.
The head of the Asylum Department of the Ministry of Refugees, Irakli Lomidze, said that they would announce their decision on 7 July.
Georgia’s Ministry of Education has withheld full accreditation from Ilia State University (ISU), with critics attributing the move to the university’s staff and students’ opposition to the controversial foreign agent law.
On Friday, Ilia State University reported that the Authorisation Council for Higher Education Institutions had granted them authorisation ‘with the condition of monitoring after a year’.
According to the university, this decision was made despite having received positive
A July decision by the Armenian Government to reduce mandatory Russian classes in schools has led to debate in the country, after a report by Sputnik Armenia suggested Armenia may intend to phase out compulsory Russian from schools entirely.
On Friday, the Russian state-owned news agency published a report about the decision citing anonymous teachers and education specialists.
The report was misinterpreted by some online who thought the government was completely removing Russian language fro
A lecturer at the Yerevan State University (YSU) has accused the university of firing him and others for participating in opposition protests.
On Monday, Abraham Gasparyan, a lecturer at the university’s International Relations faculty, said YSU had fired him over his political stances calling his dismissal ‘baseless, ignorant, and undignified’.
Gasparyan, who also hosts a show on opposition-leaning ABC Media, claimed that around ten of his colleagues had been fired for similar reasons and
A proposal to change the name of a school subject, Armenian History, to the History of Armenia has stirred controversy in the country, despite government reassurances that the curriculum would remain unchanged.
During a meeting of the ruling Civil Contract party last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that a group of teachers and scientists had appealed to the Ministry of Education to change the subject’s name.
Pashinyan stated that he agreed with the proposal, adding that he ‘blame
The family of Mustafa Emre Çabuk, a manager at the 
