Friday, December 5, 2025

Neighbours Struggle to Deal with Religious Tension in Tbilisi’s Muslim Settlement

Friday prayer in Shia mosque (DFWatch)
Friday prayer in Shia mosque (DFWatch)

Soghanlughi, DFWatch – Global Shia–Sunni conflict found its way into a small Azerbaijani community on the outskirts of Tbilisi.What started as a local tension in the predominantly Muslim settlement of Soghanlughi (Soğanlıq in Azerbaijani), which is a part of Ponichala district in the southeast of Tbilisi, escalated into a conflict informed by events in the Middle East, proving increasingly divisive for the community.

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Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia react to international war crimes probe

Tibilov
Leonid Tybylty (Tibilov), de facto President of SO, claims that ‘knowing that there would be a full-scale war… almost all of the Georgian population of Tskhinval region left their homes destroyed and burnt their houses down, leaving nothing behind.

Tbilisi, DFWatch – As allegations of ethnic cleansing emerge, Russia and South Ossetia back off from cooperating on August 2008 war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Emotions in Tbilisi, Tskhinval (Tskhinvali),

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Reintegration minister revives Russian-language TV channel debate

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PIK employees protest against closure of the channel in front of parliament in 2012 (IPN)

Tbilisi, DFWatch – Georgian experts focus on security aspects of countering Russian propaganda in the debate on reviving a Russian-language TV channel.

An initiative to create a Russian-language TV channel in Georgia was voiced by Paata Zakareishvili, minister of reintegration and civic equality, during the cabinet meeting on 11 February, Novosti Gruziya reported.

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