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IS THE “BEACON OF LIBERTY” DYING OUT?
ZAAL ANJAPARIDZE,
Political analyst, Tbilisi
Inscriptions “We will always remember November 7” have appeared recently on some streets and buildings in Tbilisi. This day, tragic for many Georgians, has divided the already split Georgian society.
After the known events of November 7 the presidential election scheduled for January 5, 2008 acquires more significance. It has gone beyond the usual constitutional expression of the popular will. Some local psychologists and sociologists argue that this election will be a real examination for the Georgian ethnopsychology and for the phenomenon defined in the wide public as “Georgian mentality”. Nowadays, when the globalization and the integration of the country and its citizens into the international political and economic processes are becoming increasingly challenging, this mentality is intensely looking for the best, the safest and the most comfortable niche, where it can be harbored securely.
According to the public opinion polls, in the past four years, the charismatic leaders with aggressive behavior and aggressive governing style have attracted the Georgians less and less. The ruling party with its sole competitive “political article” Mikheil Saakashvili is well aware of this public attitudes. These public attitudes appears to be a reason behind Saakashvili’s pre-election reverent gestures towards the part of the Georgian society, which was the driving force behind the November protest marches and expressed the well-grounded and justified social and moral grievances against the authorities. Later the authorities, agreed, though reluctantly, with much of that criticism. On the other hand, the ruling party leaders are remaining adherent to the long-standing and well-tried Georgian strategy, keeping saying that in the forthcoming election the country and the nation have to choose between “the past and the future” and between “the good and the evil”.
The official campaigns of search for “enemies of the nation”, “the Kremlin’s agents” and of “saving fatherland” from the oligarch conspiracy and “dark forces” have calmed down a little, but are still continuing. What’s alerting is that Saakashvili’s entourage still consists and, probably, will consist of those who reportedly made the decision about cruel dispersion of the peaceful rallies on November 7. To many people’s surprise, they include Chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze who has been regarded as a moderate-liner until very recently.
Many Georgian journalists were aggrieved by the results of a closed-door meeting with the government officials last Saturday that focused on several issues, including possibility of resumption of the broadcast of the sole uncontrolled by the authorities TV channel “Imedi”, which had been closed by the authorities and smashed up by the riot police, relations between the authorities and the Media. The authorities insist on their vision of the November events and try to drag out the channel reopening for as long as possible, in spite of the insistent requests from the Western community.
The “Beacon of Liberty”, that, to believe U.S. President George Bush, Georgia embodied in May 2005, when he made a visit to the country, is dying out, even though the West does not want to believe that and continues to give Saakashvili and his government a helping hand. But, it seems, not all the government officials want to take it. According to the available information, in the Georgian corridors of power the worst scenario such as abandonment of the Western support, is being considered. The statements like “We are not afraid of being left alone” are made.
If the West considers Georgia to be the country that, according to «The Economist» magazine Intelligence Unit’s index of democracy, has a “hybrid regime” with a trend towards curtailment of media and other civil liberties, one can agree with the widespread view that the West is most likely to maintain partnership relations with Georgia, but will keep it at arm’s length for a while.
December 6, 2007
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Other materials on this topic
Hot topics
Digest
30.11.2007
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With Georgia gearing up for a presidential election campaign in January and a degree of normality returning after the recent crisis, the Imedi television station remains at the centre of national and international controversy.
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19.11.2007
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EURASIANET.ORG: GEORGIA GETS NEW PRIME MINISTER
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In an apparent bid to reduce potential support for opposition candidates in Georgia’s upcoming special presidential election, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is reshuffling his government.
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Expert forum
TV COMPANY “IMEDI” RESUMES ITS BROADCASTING IN GEORGIA
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GIORGI TARGAMADZE
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13.12.2007
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The Georgian government continues to put serious pressure on the journalists, editors and producers of the “IMEDI” company. Officials are using all the ways, for example, blackmailing and intimidating of the people including their relatives and families.
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PRESIDENTIAL RACE IN GEORGIA
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SHALVA NATELASHVILI
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03.12.2007
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As long as Mikheil Saakashvili stays in power, Georgia will be a superpresidential republic. So, it is necessary to elect a new President who would abolish this vicious system. But there are other questions. Which kind of a republic do we need? What powers should the President have? Who will elect him?
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PRESIDENTIAL RACE IN GEORGIA
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MALKHAZ SALDADZE
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03.12.2007
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If to take into account the control of the mass media by the propresidential United National Movement and the authorities’ monopoly on the financial and administrative resources, Saakashvili’s position is more advantageous than that of his rivals.
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GEORGIA'S UNITED OPPOSITION AGAINST MIKHEIL SAAKASHVILI
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LEVAN GACHECHILADZE
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23.11.2007
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When I become President, Georgia will continue to be West- and NATO-oriented. I think it is the only way for a democratic country. I am also going to give great attention to the development of good-neighborly relations with Russia.
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GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLES IN GEORGIA
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SERGEI MARKEDONOV
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20.11.2007
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There is no alternative to the incumbent president Mikheil Saakashvili in the forthcoming presidential polls in Georgia. Like it or not, he stands to win the forthcoming elections. The opposition cannot compete with Saakashvili.
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GEORGIA TO HOLD EARLY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
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ALEXANDER RONDELI
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15.11.2007
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The Georgian people do not want destabilization of the situation. So, channeling political activity into election campaign would stabilize the situation. In short, the force that swings the presidential polls, will make it into the Parliament.
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OPPOSITION RALLIES IN GEORGIA
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MERAB PACHULIA
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15.11.2007
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The collective distaste for Saakashvili has brought a wide segment of the society together and people have closed ranks for common objectives – free elections, rule of law, a system where the power of one person can be held in check.
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GEORGIA: CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE AUTHORITIES AND THE OPPOSITION
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DAVID BERDZENISHVILI
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14.11.2007
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The international organizations severely criticize the Georgian authorities’ actions - their means of breaking up the rally and suppression of the TV channels “Imedi”, “Kavkasia”. All in all, the Georgian President has reached a deadlock.
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GEORGIAN UNITED OPPOSITION VERSUS SAAKASHVILI
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GHIA NODIA
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07.11.2007
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Now the Georgian opposition needs a leader who can be an alternative to the current President. I doubt that the opposition’s sponsor Badri Patarkatsishvili can become such an alternative leader. Okruashvili is a more attractive political figure.
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OPPOSITION MARCHES IN GEORGIA
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ALEXANDER RONDELI
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08.10.2007
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Irakli Okruashvili was afraid of being arrested and decided to pursue a preemptive tactic making accusations against Mikheil Saakashvili. We do not know which of his accusations are true and which are false.
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Author’s opinion on other topics
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22 July 2009
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I believe that Barack Obama managed to avert another Russia-Georgia war and now Tbilisi is arguing more confidently that Russia’s war threat has been prevented. The question is for how long.
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08 June 2009
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After May 26 (Georgia’s Independence Day), when an impressively large-scale rally organized by the opposition had shown that too many people in Georgia sought to make Mikheil Saakashvili and his team resign, the opposition and the ruling party decided to weaken their confrontation and to step back from the “Red Line”.
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PROTEST ACTIONS IN GEORGIA ARE COMING TO A HEAD
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20 April 2009
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How long the opposition’s rally in Tbilisi will last and how long can it maintain the protest mood? Many have asked this question since the seventh day of the protest rally when it became clear that the opposition had failed to take to the streets the number of protesters, which would be a weighty argument for the authorities to effect changes.
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GEORGIA: GOVERNMENT, OPPOSITION AND EXTERNAL PLAYERS
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23 March 2009
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The external players, which have their own plans and interests in Georgia and the Caucasus region, have become increasingly involved in monitoring of the internal developments in the country along with raising Georgia’s political temperature.
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DOES THE US–GEORGIA CHARTER ON STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP CHALLENGE RUSSIA?
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14 January 2009
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It is difficult to forecast how diligently the Administration of President Barack Obama will follow the above-mentioned articles of the Charter. But there is a high probability (taking into consideration the increased tension in the Russia-U.S. relations) that Russia would consider the Charter as a challenge to its interests in South Caucasus.
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FIVE YEARS AFTER THE ROSE REVOLUTION
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01 December 2008
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For the first time, Georgia has not celebrated the anniversary of the Rose Revolution in a traditional pompous way and the authorities have not boasted about their successes as they had done annually on 23 November since 2003.
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WAR IN SOUTH OSSETIA – TIME TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS STILL REMAINS
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12 August 2008
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The guns are bellowing now in South Ossetia and Georgia, and muses of those who might mull over the solution of the grave crisis, are still silent. Many things including the people’s lives depend on how long the diplomats and policy-makers will be inactive.
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BURJANADZE RETURNS?!
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11 July 2008
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Ex-chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze who had scandalously quitted President Mikheil Saakashvili’s team right before the May 21, 2008 parliamentary elections, returned to politics the very way that was most expected from her cautious and pragmatic mind.
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THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN RELATIONS
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25 April 2008
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Almost all significant political forces in Georgia, including the ruling party, say that there are sufficient reasons for making the compromises with Russia that would not infringe upon Georgia’s national interests.
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FOR HOW LONG WILL THEY HIDE THE CAT IN A BAG?
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24 December 2007
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Mikheil Saakashvili who is seeking re-election to the second term in office as President of Georgia must be very lucky. The resolution of the issue concerning recognition of Kosovo’s independence by the West, which was due on December 10, has been postponed, even if not for long.
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IS GEORGIA ON THE BRINK OF A NEW CIVIL CONFRONTATION?
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16 October 2007
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Barely had the Saakashvili’s team got rid of Okruashvili, when a much stronger opponent, oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili, who is expected to become leader of the united opposition, came up as a new opponent to Saakashvili.
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THE OKRUASHVILI FACTOR
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08 October 2007
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Irakli Okruashvili may use his arrest as the political dividend that he lacked until recently. Now he is unlikely to be reproached for the implicit connections with the authorities, as it was often done in recent times.
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THE FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA: SOCIAL ATTITUDES
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01 August 2007
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The presidential and parliamentary elections in Georgia will take place in a year and a half. However, the voters’ attitudes and opinions about the policy pursued in the country are already in the process of shaping.
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THE “SANAKOEV” OPERATION
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03 July 2007
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The Georgian authorities did their utmost to convince the Europeans in Brussels that Dmitry Sanakoev was not Tbilisi’s puppet, but a representative of the Ossetian population in Georgia including the breakaway region.
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SHADE OF KOSOVO OVER GEORGIA
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13 June 2007
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The pending recognition of independence of the Serbian province Kosovo by the United Nations and attempts by Russia to apply the “Kosovo precedent” to the conflict zones in the post-Soviet space might reverberate negatively for Georgia.
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NEW POLITICAL CULTURE IN GEORGIA – PHILOSOPHY OF “WASHING AWAY”
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25 May 2007
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The current events in Georgia clearly indicate that after the Rose Revolution a new political culture is being aggressively planted in the country. Apart from other goals, it is most likely aimed at a complete replacement of the national Georgian traditions and values with the new philosophy.
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19 February 2007
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Members of the “National Forum” and some other opposition parties fear that Georgia may join NATO without Abkhazia and South Ossetia, thus losing those territories for good.
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MOSCOW HAS TAKEN A STEP TOWARDS TBILISI… WHAT COMES NEXT?!
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26 January 2007
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Russia has overestimated the effect of its sanctions against Georgia. It seems that the Kremlin officials have finally counted and compared their losses and gains from the sanctions against Georgia and ruled out that they better to loosen the grip.
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WILL GEORGIA ADOPT A NEW CONSTITUTION?
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17 January 2007
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While signing the constitutional amendments on January 10, Saakashvili made no secret of the fact that they were introduced to “please friends and disappoint enemies”, and immediately he suggested working on a new Constitution.
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GEORGIA IN THE RUN-UP TO NATIONAL ELECTIONS
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13 December 2006
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The relationship between Russia and Georgia which has been marked by tension and confrontations bears influence on Georgia’s political landscape and forthcoming national elections.
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MOSCOW HAS NO MORE CREDENCE TO TBILISI
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28 November 2006
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Tbilisi intends to show Moscow and the whole international community that the Saakashvili Administration is eager to restart the two countries’ dialogue.
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HOW GEORGIAN – RUSSIAN KNOT WILL BE UNTIED?
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07 November 2006
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Now that the Georgian-Russian confrontation is gaining momentum and is approaching the dangerous point, the sides appear to think over in what mode they will continue coexistence.
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