Author: Goga Akhalkatsi

Chancellor says protests are ‘strong sign in favour of democracy’ as demonstrators gather in Berlin, Dresden, Hanover and other cities About 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Germany in further protests against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Protests on Saturday also took place in Dresden, Mainz and Hanover in a sign of growing alarm at strong public support for AfD. Roughly 150,000 people flocked to the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, where protesters gathered under the slogan “We are the Firewall” to protest against right-wing extremism and to show support for democracy. The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, wrote on X:…

The Georgian Government’s “fruitful” cooperation with the United Nations was discussed on Thursday in a meeting between the Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze and Miguel de Serpa Soares, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel. Bregadze informed Soares about the role of his office in developing the country’s legal system, the Ministry said, noting it represented the state in international courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the UN treaty monitoring bodies. The Georgian official stressed promoting legal education and awareness were the “best…

A summit of EU transport ministers finished this week in Brussels without any significant progress that could help the thousands of truckers stuck on the Polish-Ukrainian and Slovak-Ukrainian borders in freezing temperatures. Some reconciliatory moves were made before the summit by the Ukrainian side, which opened one extra border crossing to allow Polish hauliers with empty trucks to leave Ukraine faster. However, a deal on the major bone of contention seems no nearer: Polish truckers want the reintroduction of a system of quotas for Ukrainian hauliers entering the EU, which was lifted when the war started. The EU Commission said that’s…

Levan Ioseliani, the Public Defender of Georgia, on Thursday met with Oleksandr Korniyenko, the Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, in Kyiv, with discussions centred around fostering cooperation between the two nations in safeguarding human rights and addressing shared challenges. Ioseliani also participated in an international human rights conference titled Freedom or Fear, hosted in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights. Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Miatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and Tena Šimonović, Public Defender of Croatia, delivered messages through video…

Georgia wants NATO to offer it clear approaches for the country’s accession, and the organization should follow the European Union’s example by giving specific recommendations followed by assessment-based decisions to the country, Shalva Papuashvili, speaker of the Georgian parliament, said. “At a meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission, I reported on how Georgia manages to maintain a safe environment in these difficult circumstances and contribute to ensuring international security. I proposed that NATO follow the example of the European Union, which offers us specific recommendations and makes corresponding assessment-based decisions as they are met,” Papuashvili told Georgian journalists in Brussels on…

Petrostates could be on a streak for hosting international climate talks. Oil-rich Azerbaijan got a surprise boost Thursday in its bid to hold next year’s COP29 when Armenia, a country it has warred with on and off for decades, dropped its own aspirations to host the talks — and endorsed its adversary’s candidacy. The extraordinary turn of events could add to a pattern of oil- and gas-producing nations running the annual talks on how to respond to the Earth’s warming, whose major cause is the burning of fossil fuels. The talks occurring this week are based in the United Arab…

A new wave of repression in Azerbaijan is targeting foreign-funded independent media as well as journalists who criticize the government and expose high-level corruption. Authorities have arrested at least six journalists and placed them in pretrial custody on bogus charges since November 20. And the number is growing; as I write, police have questioned at least three more. The latest arrests include Rufat Muradli, a host of Kanal 13 online television channel, and Aziz Orujov, the channel’s founder. Kanal 13 has a large Azerbaijani subscriber base and social media following and is known for not being afraid to criticize the…

Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed to a prisoner exchange, and to work towards normalizing ties and a peace deal to a decades-long conflict — a move the United States and European Union have welcomed. Azerbaijan will release 32 prisoners of war to Armenia in exchange for two, all members of the military, according to a joint statement published by Azerbaijan’s state news agency AZERTAC. “The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan share the view that there is a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace in the region. Two countries reconfirm their intention to normalize relations and to reach the peace…

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili’s visit to NATO once again confirms the “comprehensive nature” of NATO-Georgia relations, Irakli Beraia, the Chair of the Defence and Security Committee of the country’s legislative body, said on Tuesday. He noted Papuashvili would address the NATO-Georgia Commission meeting and would hold high-level meetings at the NATO headquarters during his two-day visit to Brussels. In the capitals of Europe, Georgia is considered as a future NATO member state”, Beraia said, stressing the main topics of discussion by the Georgian delegation would be the regional security environment, the current situation in the Russian-occupied territories of the…

London (06/11 – 58) France and the United Kingdom (UK) have jointly made a request in favour of Sri Lanka to the court of the Southern District of New York, for a six-month freeze on any litigation in the Hamilton Reserve Bank case until Sri Lanka’s external debt restructuring is completed, the Financial Times reported. Accordingly, last week the two countries filed a joint “amicus curiae” to the New York judge hearing the case, arguing in favour of Sri Lanka’s request for a six-month freeze on any litigation. The co-signatories in their “amicus curiae” want the judge to grant Sri…