The death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania (pictured) in February 2005 is still troubling Georgians. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The body of a former Georgian prime minister may be exhumed in order to determine the cause of death. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, one of the architects of the rose revolution, died in 2005, officially of gas poisoning due to a faulty heater. […]
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili. (TRT.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili appeared on the Turkish TV Monday, explaining his country’s policy toward two breakaway regions that have been controlled by Russia since the war in 2008. Georgian territorial integrity will be restored, […]
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili (left) and Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev in Istanbul on Monday. (Photo published on Facebook.) TBILISI, DFWatch–President Giorgi Margvelashvili says the free trade treaty Georgia signed with the EU earlier this year opens opportunities also for other countries to reach the EU market. He said this while discussing bilateral relations with Kyrgyzstan […]
A magnitude four storm battered the Batumi beach Monday. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Heavy rain hit Georgia’s southwestern parts on Monday, but so far without causing the amount of damage which was feared after meteorologists issued a dire forecast the day before. Last night, there was strong wind and a constant downpour […]
Vladimer Papava is Professor of Tbilisi State University. Ukraine has garnered the world’s attention as a country facing a myriad of complex challenges, among which economic problems play a significant role. The corruption-stricken government of Ukraine is reminiscent of Georgia in the beginning of the 21st century, […]
Levan Chachua is on trial for negligence while performing the autopsy on Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in 2006. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the body of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania denies that he harassed a witness. The trial about the prime minister’s death in 2006 continued Thursday with questioning of the pathologist Levan Chachua. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–The Turkish Ministry of Education has adopted a plan to teach Georgian in the schools, according to a Facebook post by the Georgian embassy in Turkey. In its post, the embassy writes that if there are 10 or more students at a given school who want […]
Muslim Shishani, from Pankisi Gorge in Georgia. TBILISI, DFWatch–An 18 year old Georgian has died in the Syrian civil war. He is the sixth fighter to die in the war who is a native of Pankisi Gorge. Pankisi Gorge in the northeast of Georgia was used as a jihadist base during both Chechen wars, and this was where […]
Georgia joins the UN Arms Trade Treaty. (police.ge) TBILISI, DFWatch–On Friday, Georgia will join a new treaty which restricts the international trade in small arms. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on April 2, 2013, and is a first of its kind. It will regulate the sale […]
Unusually high water levels caused damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure in the southwest of Georgia Wednesday. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A storm of strength five hit western Georgia early in the morning on September 24 and caused damage to infrastructure, floods and landslides in the Adjara and Guria regions. In Guria, a river flooded a school in Shemokmedi, students and staff were evacuated by the […]
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (left) and Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian government denies that it has offered the US to host a training facility for Syrian rebels fighting both the Assad government and the ISIS, against whom the US and some of its allies wage a military operation. Foreign Policy […]
Former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili is one of the defendants in the trial. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A verdict in one Georgia’s most controversial murder cases is expected two weeks from now, with a former interior minister as one of the defendants. The defense made its closing remarks in Tbilisi City Court Wednesday in the trial about the murder […]
Dimitri Khundadze, head of the healthcare committee in the Georgian parliament. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The head of the healthcare committee in the Georgian parliament wants tougher punishment for illegal abortions. In 2012, there were about forty thousand registered legal abortions in Georgia. But committee head Dimitri Khundadze stressed that […]
Temur Janashia (left) and his lawyer Beka Basilaia. (Rustavi 2.) TBILISI, DFWatch–After slapping an asset freeze on former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office got court approval to do the same with the property of his almost inseparable head of security, Temur Janashia. Sitting next to his attorney […]
Contestants in the 2011 Miss Georgia competition. (Interpressnews.) It is always challenging to be a foreigner. But being a foreign woman in the Caucasus is even harder. “You will see that in Georgia women are treated like queens, like princesses”. This was one of the first sentences I heard when a Georgian man picked me up at […]
Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania died in 2005, apparently from gas poisoning. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The trial into the circumstances surrounding the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in 2005 continued in Tbilisi on Monday. The investigation into Zhvania’s death was reopened after the change of government in 2012. During today’s hearing […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A storm Sunday night left about 7,000 households without electricity in Batumi, a city on the Black Sea coast. According to local media, a further 1,800 families are without electricity in Khelvachauri municipality. There has been heavy rain in Batumi […]
Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Prosecutor’s Office in Georgia has seized the bank accounts of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, his attorney wrote in a Facebook update on Sunday. This comes only days after the a ruling in the Appeals Court which confirmed the seizure […]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has said he may dissolve parliament or step down if this is needed to avert a political crisis. After months of simmering conflict between him and the government, both part of the same coalition, there was […]
(Graphic published by the National Bank of Georgia.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s National Bank noted a one percent increase in money transfers into the country in August 2014, compared to the same period last year. The amount of money transferred from abroad in August was 225.1 million lari (130.1 million USD); 0.9 percent […]
The High Council of Justice is the highest authority in Georgia’s legal system, not the Supreme Court. TBILISI, DFWatch–A new cohort of judge candidates are taking qualification exams September 20 and 27, under the auspices of the High Council of Justice. The exams are held at the Technical University’s first building and for the first time conducted electronically. […]
Locals in Svaneti blocked a road earlier this year in protest against the plans. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Opponents of the Khudoni hydropower project met in Mestia on Thursday to sound the final alarm before a massive dam floods parts of the unique Svaneti region, threatening an age-old cultural landscape. The Svaneti region is a rare landscape […]
Tbilisi City Court. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Appeals Court in Georgia Friday upheld a decision to seize the property of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, along with the property of his spouse, sons, parents and grandmother. To most Georgians, it has been unknown until today that there even was […]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili during the swearing-in ceremony in November 2013. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s president has rejected suggestions that he is planning to set up his own political party, despite an apparent widening split between him and the government coalition. Speculations of a possible new opposition party seeing the light of day […]
Medea Vasadze, member of the Adjara regional council. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–There was further infighting in Georgia’s government coalition on Thursday as a member of the council in the Adjara region accused a local finance official of corruption. The accusation was put forth as the official, Davit Baladze, September 18 briefed […]
(DF Watch.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s foreign trade turnover in the first eight months of 2014 was 12 percent more than in the same period last year. Preliminary data from Georgia’s National Statistics Department, GeoStat, published on Tuesday show that the total amount […]
Art students protested two weeks ago. (Imedi.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Students protested on Tuesday against the level of education at Tbilisi State University. Some of the students left the hall whistling after meeting the rector and the administration of the department for social and political studies. They say that every time such […]
President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The conflict between the Georgian president and the government soured even more on Wednesday after the TV company Rustavi 2 exposed private correspondence between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the president’s administration. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A fire destroyed the ‘gypsy market’ in Tbilisi on Tuesday. Vendors claim the fire was started deliberately. About 2500 square meters was burned. Vendors say they think the fire was started in order to get rid of them and build […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian parliament has begun discussing a draft bill which will require all public employees to pass a language test to prove that they know either the Georgian or Abkhazian language. The latter is also an official language in Georgia, […]
Mestia is one of the most important tourist destinations in Georgia. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A group of German tourists were robbed in Mestia Monday night, several Georgian news outlets reported. The reports differ on important details, but most say three German tourists were robbed along the road from Zugdidi to Mestia, one of […]
Mayor of Tbilisi Davit Narmania. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Tbilisi mayor says the city must tighten its belt, because the National Movement, which ruled the city for a decade, left ‘the worst budget ever’. Newly elected Mayor Davit Narmania from the Georgian Dream Coalition said on Tuesday that […]
Giorgi Sigua. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The former head of Georgia’s National Tourism Administration has said that the Georgian Orthodox Church demanded that he cancel a music festival shortly before he was sacked. Giorgi Sigua was one of those who helped organize the festival, but was […]
From left to right: Zaur Khalilov, executive director of Civic Integration Fund, theologian Beka Mindiashvili, and lawyer Giorgi Gotsiridze. (DF Watch.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A few days ago, in a town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, local Orthodox Christians hung a pig’s head on the entrance to a Muslim madrasa school which was to be opened in few days, insulting the religious feelings of Muslims. What are the reasons […]
Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, is visiting Georgia September 13-16. The Vatican’s Section for Relations with States corresponds to the foreign ministry of civil governments. […]
TBILISI, DFWatch–A Turkish public official who is visiting Georgia says he hopes there will be built new mosques in Batumi and Akhaltsikhe. Mehmet Görmez,President of the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey, arrived on Friday on his first visit to Georgia […]
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuch Hagel. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The United States is strengthening its military cooperation with Georgia and several non NATO-member states on the background of events in Ukraine. US is a strategic partner of Georgia and supports its North-Atlantic integration, US Secretary […]
(TV-25.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Patriarchate of Georgia claims that a boarding school for Muslim kids was built against the will of a majority of the local population in Kobuleti, a small town on Black Sea coast. For the last few days, locals have tried to oppose the opening of the […]
KaZantip is planned held in Georgia also in 2015. TBILISI, DFWatch–Organizers of KaZantip are determined to hold the electronic music festival in Georgia next year too, despite low visitor numbers last month. But the condition is that the government allows the festival site in Anaklia to be used. KaZantip was held […]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili says there was ‘very serious organized work’ against his planned visit to the US. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili has canceled a planned trip to New York to attend the UN climate change summit, after weeks of squabbling with the government about who should represent the country. The decision comes after the businessman […]
Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili (left) and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. TBILISI, DFWatch–Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili met Thursday with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to discuss strategic cooperation and bilateral relations. The meeting took place at the president’s palace, and Gharibashvili was accompanied by members […]
Bidzina Ivanishvili. (Palitra TV.) TBILISI, DFWatch–In a rare interview, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has criticized President Giorgi Margvelashvili for harming the country’s image. Ivanishvili left politics after the presidential election in October, 2013. He said in an interview […]
(TV-25) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into an incident in a small town about a pig head being placed on the door of a Muslim religious school called a madrasa. The incident happened in Kobuleti as locals were protesting against […]
Locals in Kobuleti demonstrated against a planned madrasa on Monday. (TV-25.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Locals in the small Georgian town Kobuleti on the Black Sea coast are protesting against the construction of a madrasa, a religious educational facility for Muslims. As a sign of protest people killed a pig and placed its head at the entrance […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The amount of direct foreign investments in Georgia in the second quarter of 2014 was USD 151 million; significantly lower than in the same period last year. This is down 27% compared to in the second quarter of 2013, when there was USD 208 million […]
Irakli Lomidze (left), head of Asylum Department at the Refugee Ministry. Dimitry Pirbar, head of the Religious Council of Yazidis in Georgia. (Click to activate video.) (DF Watch.) TBILISI, DFWatch–More than 50 Yazidis have fled from Iraq to Georgia and applied for political asylum here. DF Watch September 3 organized a discussion about the situation. Dimitry Pirbar, head of the Religious Council of Yazidis in Georgia, said he had been to Iraq […]
There has been strong resistance to Trans-Elektrica’s plans for a hydro power dam in Khudoni. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The building of a controversial hydropower dam in a mountainous region of Georgia may be further postponed, if the company behind it fails to submit the required documents in time. The planned Khudoni hydropower project is located […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Over a year after a wave of complaints about frequent police searches in the streets, new reports are coming in of the same problem. People are being stopped and searched by the police in the streets. During one such raid, a reporter for media.ge […]
The body of Arsen Beridze was brought home to Georgia from Ukraine Monday. (1tv.ge) TBILISI, DFWatch–The body of a Georgian who died a few days ago in a bomb explosion in Ukraine’s Donetsk region arrived in Georgia on Monday. Arsen Beridze, 23, from Adjara region, had been living in Ukraine with his family for the past 12 years. He was killed when […]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–President Giorgi Margvelashvili will attend the UN Climate Summit 2014 despite the express wishes of Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. The president has said many times that he will go to the US and his plan about the visit hasn’t changed. […]
President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The government wants to strip the president of the power to set terms for student scholarships and studies abroad. A new draft law about higher education will if passed let the it be up to the government to confirm the use of student advantages, […]
From left to right: Mariam Gogosashvili, student at GIPA, Temo Kakhidze, student at University of Patriarchate and Elene Beriashvili, student at Tbilisi State University. (Click to watch video.) (DF Watch.) TBILISI, DFWatch–On September 6, DF Watch organized a discussion about the difficulties youth are having finding employment. We invited students from three different universities to share their views on youth unemployment. They agree that there are problems, […]
Students at the Academy of Art in Tbilisi are opposed to new rules for electing a rector. (Imedi TV.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Students demonstrated Friday outside the Culture Ministry against a decision to only allow professors at accredited universities to become rector of the Academy of Art. The decree was signed by Culture Minister Mikheil Giorgadze on September 1. […]
Heads of state of NATO and partner countries at the Wales summit. TBILISI, DFWatch–A 113 point declaration passed by leaders of NATO countries at the summit in Wales has two points about Georgia. Apart from support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and a commitment that it will become a member of NATO someday […]
A four-year old boy was tortured with an iron in a village in western Georgia Wednesday. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The torture of a 4-year old boy in a village in western Georgia has shocked Georgians and made many question official statistics indicating a significant decrease in crime. Two days ago, Ketevan Arveladze was at home alone with her 4-year old when […]
Eight people have so far been killed this year in landslides in Dariali Valley. (Police.ge.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Geologists in Georgia say heavy rainfall would cause another landslide in Dariali Valley, where eight people have already been killed this year in two natural disasters. Six people were killed in a landslide in Dariali Valley May 17, and two more […]
From left to right: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Giorgi Margvelashvili, David Cameron. (Official photo.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said in a speech at the NATO summit in Wales that the events in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014 demonstrate that stability and peaceful development of young democracies is a significant challenge […]
(Photo published by the Ministry of Defense.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A Georgian platoon is taking part in the annual exercise Rapid Trident in Ukraine September 13-27. The multinational exercise will be conducted at the training ground Yavoriv, nearby the western Ukrainian city Lviv, and include participants […]
President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili (left) and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. (Photo published by NATO.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian president on Thursday met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in preparation for the NATO summit in Wales. The two talked about the importance of the summit on the background of the Ukraine crisis and the significance […]
Export of Georgian wine continues to increase. TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia increased its wine export by 69 percent in the first eight months of 2014, compared to last year. According to the the National Wine Agency, the country exported 36,585,769 bottles (0.75 liters) of wine in the period. The agency on Wednesday […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian parliament on Wednesday asked the international community to use every kind of means to stop the military actions and aggression in Ukraine, to deescalate the situation and handle humanitarian concerns. This is the third […]
Georgia had less visitors this August. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–772,216 people visited Georgia in August, which is 0.5 percent less than in August 2013. The new statistics published by the Interior Ministry shows that 3,685,834 people visited Georgia in the first eight months of 2014. This is a 3 percent drop […]
Tbilisi, DFWatch – Against the backdrop of tragic events going on in Ukraine, Georgian delegation left optimistic to Wales to take part in the NATO Summit on Sept. 4-5, while NATO states that it expects establishing new defense capacity building mission in Georgia. Although […]
Maia Panjikidze. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze on Tuesday offered her Ukrainian colleague to bring children to Georgia for vacation and rehabilitation course. Panjikidze made the offer during a phone conversation with Pavlo Klimkin. She said that the […]
Francis Fukuyama is professor of political science at Stanford University. Many Georgians are discussing how far Mr Putin will go in his attempt to subdue his neighbor Ukraine. Maybe he will take this important seaport of Mariupol and go to Odessa or even Kiev? What’s your opinion about the outcome of this conflict? I don’t really have a prediction about this […]
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–NATO is ramping up its defense of Eastern Europe with a new expeditionary force that will be able to “travel light but strike hard if needed”. Also planned are five new bases in the Baltic states, Poland and Romania, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine […]
(Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–The head of the police department and his deputy at one of the regions in Georgia on Sunday beat investigator Roman Korshia. He required medical assistance. The participants in the incidents are not commenting. An investigation was launched […]
Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–53,067 foreigners were granted Georgian citizenship from 2005 to 2013, and in 2013 the president granted citizenship to most of them – 9,626 people. According to the report of Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), the […]
Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–A free trade agreement between Georgia and the European Union came into force today, September 1. This means that Georgian product may be exported to Europe without customs fee. Free trade was part of an association agreement Georgia signed with […]
Health Minister Davit Sergeenko. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Children and injured people will be brought from Ukraine to Georgia for treatment, and Georgia will offer humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili said on Saturday. “We are also thinking of bringing children, injured, […]
Agit Mirzoev, head of House of Yazidis in Georgia. TBILISI, DFWatch–Kurdish Yazidis who fled from Iraq are seeking asylum in Georgia. Agit Mirzoev, the head of House of Yazidis in Georgia, told DF Watch that about 50 Yazidis have come to Georgia and asked the government for asylum. He said another group is expected […]
Ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Interpressnews.) TBILISI, DFWatch–Former President Mikheil Saakashvili on Saturday appeared at Sarpi checkpoint’s Turkish side, on the border between Georgia and Turkey and met with members and supporters of his National Movement party. After his appearance was reported, the Prosecutor’s Office started […]
