SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has steadily increased its gas sales to Georgia over the past few years, Gagamali Seyfullayev, head of state energy company SOCAR’s gas export department, told media. This year Azerbaijan will pump about 1b cubic metres of gas to Georgia, up from 775m in 2011.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Until July farmers from around the world had eyed up Georgia as good place to move to, buy a patch of land and start farming.
On July 17, though, President Mikheil Saakashvili signed a decree passed by parliament that places a moratorium on foreigners owning land.
Mr Saakashvili had, it has to be said, been against the decree but he was powerless to resist parliament which is now controlled by an opposition coalition led by PM Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Mr Ivanishvili’s government has proved their populist touch once more.
The previous government of Mr Saakashvili’s United National Movement had suspended a law banning foreigners from owning land unless they were part of a Georgia-registered business. They said that foreigners’ expertise was needed to boost productivity and efficiency.
They also actively encouraged some groups, such as Boer farmers from South Africa to migrate to Georgia. Other groups also arrived, such as Punjabi Indians.
This, though, triggered a backlash. Local people protested earlier in the year under the banner: “Georgian land for Georgians”. Once again politics and business in Georgia appear intimately entwined.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)
SEPT. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gunmen shot dead a Russian diplomat in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia. Criminal deals have been touted as a possible motive for the murder of Dmitry Vishernev, First Secretary at the Russian consul, although his death could unsettle Georgia-Russia relations. Russia recognises Abkhazia’s independence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
SEPT. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials in Georgia destroyed 180 hours of secret audio and video recordings of politicians, journalists and business people. The records, taken mainly by interior ministry officials under the previous government, were potentially to be used to blackmail people.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
AUG. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — On Aug. 26, the authorities in Chela, a town in the region of Ajara in south-west Georgia, removed a minaret from a mosque. The official reason was to inspect whether the minaret had been constructed legally. Protesting Muslims claimed the removal was an attack on their right to worship and a debate over religious freedom kicked off.
Most of Georgia’s 4.5 million people belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church and are guided by the Church’s relatively conservative views. A Muslim minority, roughly 10% of the population, lives in Georgia, mainly in the south-east near the border with Azerbaijan or in the south-west along the border with Turkey.
The authorities dismantled the minaret from Chela and drove it to Tbilisi for inspection. There they decreed that, although the minaret had been made of illegal material, it should be resurrected. And so they loaded the minaret back on to a truck and drove it back to Chela.
Near Chela, though, a group of Orthodox Christians, stepped in and blocked the road. They don’t want the minaret to be resurrected.
The minaret now lies in pieces a few kilometres from Chela. Meanwhile, Georgia debates its view on religious tolerance.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s economy will grow by only 4% this year, a drop from 6.5% in 2012, because of concerns over political instability, media said quoting the IMF. Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, won a surprise victory in a parliamentary election in 2012. A presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 27.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
SEPT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sparking controversy, private donors in the east Georgian town of Telavi unveiled a new statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Stalin, who was Georgian, sent millions of people to their deaths in camps in Siberia. Many Soviet veterans, though, credit Stalin with defeating the Nazis during the Second World War.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili pulled his TV station Channel-9 off the air. Mr Ivanishvili had said he wants to distance himself from media ahead of a presidential election in October. Channel-9 had been strongly critical of Mr Ivanishili’s rival, the incumbent Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
AUG. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia and Russia have made a deal to start up road freight and bus connections after they were cut seven years ago when relations between the neighbours soured, media reported. The deal is another significant step towards normalising Georgia-Russia relations after a brief war in 2008.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
AUG. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rompetrol, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas, will open 22 new petrol stations in Georgia by the end of 2014, media reported. This shows that Kazmunaigas is continuing to use Rompetrol to expand overseas and also that it believes that demand for petrol in Georgia is growing. Rompetrol already operates 70 petrol stations in Georgia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 148, published on Aug. 19 2013)