Georgia - Articoli

The curves of the Georgian alphabet seduce UNESCO

09/01/2017 -  Monica Ellena Tbilisi

After evolving in parallel for centuries, thanks to UNESCO, the three Georgian alphabets became intangible cultural heritage of humanity. A living and charming heritage, but one to be protected


Pankisi, the land of the offspring

17/10/2016 -  Matteo ZolaEmanuele Cassano

A journey to Duisi, the principal village in the valley of Pankisi in north-eastern Georgia where many of its children have rebuffed the traditions of the fathers. Report


The South Caucasus at Rio Olympic Games

02/08/2016 -  Natalia Kawana

Things seem to be going well for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia at the 2016 Summer Olympics – scheduled to start on 5 August, in Rio de Janeiro. At least when it comes to the overall numbers of participating athletes


Georgian parliamentary election: the Security Sector Reform

08/07/2016 -  Marilisa Lorusso

A crucial topic on the national agenda, the reform of the security sector in Georgia is likely to influence the October political ballots


Georgia: Leaving Care

23/06/2016 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

In Georgia there are many care services for beneficiaries below the age of 18, but problems really emerge once they become adults. Georgia’s ChildPact members address this issue, working with the authorities to find long-term solutions


National minorities under the Georgian Dream

02/03/2016 -  Marilisa Lorusso Tbilisi

Giorgi Bobghiashvili, of the European Centre for Minority Issues, spoke to us about national minorities and inclusive policies in Georgia ahead of the next general elections


Georgia’s Syria Problem

16/11/2015 -  Onnik Krikorian* Tbilisi

Up to 100 Georgian citizens, mostly from the Pankisi Valley, have allegedly left their homes to join the Islamic State in Syria. With no effective counter-radicalisation policies, the situation could become even worse


Georgia: the kolkhoz buried, the cooperatives are flourishing

20/10/2015 -  Monica Ellena Tbilisi

After years of mistrust, thanks to massive international support and political changes, Georgian agriculture has learned that unity makes for strength


At risk Rustavi 2, Georgia's most popular TV channel

31/08/2015 -  Simone Zoppellaro

Legitimate claim or political plot? A former co-owner of one of the country's most popular TV channels has claimed the intellectual property of the TV logo. The judiciary intervenes with a number of temporary restrictions and Rustavi 2 risks to disappear


Human rights in Armenia: the Muižnieks report

18/03/2015 -  Andrea Oskari Rossini

Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, made public on 10 March his report on the state of human rights in Armenia. Our interview


The missing page in the Association Agreements

24/06/2014 -  Giorgio ComaiMirela Oprea

It might be one page, one paragraph, or just two lines. But the importance of including child protection in EU’s Association Agreements cannot be overestimated


Concerns Linger About Sexual Minority Rights in Georgia

30/05/2014 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

Following last year’s rampage by conservatives targeting LGBT activists intent on marking 17 May as the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), the Georgian Orthodox Church this year instead declared the day as one celebrating family unity. And while civil society did not take the attempt to hijack IDAHOT lying down, some are concerned that this is just the start


Georgia’s European Integration Still On Track, But Stumbling Blocks Remain

22/04/2014 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

In Georgia the majority of the population is in favor of closer ties with the European Union. However this will depend on progress made in terms of human rights protection and it is in these issues that stumbling blocks might frustrate Georgian ambitions


Open Georgia

24/02/2014 -  Cristina Maza Tbilisi

Georgia has embraced the idea of open data as a vital component of open government. Critics, however, say data usability is still out of reach. A vital civil society sector could make the difference


Children of the South Caucasus

24/01/2014 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

Georgia's deinstitutionalisation policy has proved successful in addressing the needs of children deprived of parental care, but some concerns remain. In neighbouring Armenia and Azerbaijan, thousands of kids are still living in Soviet-era institutions


Fort Sochi

20/12/2013 -  Andrea Rossini

The Sochi Project, a digital tale showcased at the recent Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, is a powerful investigation into the next Winter Olympics, and on the human rights violations associated


The Vilnius puzzler

05/12/2013 -  Giorgio Comai

The Association Agreements initialled by Moldova and Georgia in Vilnius are not identical. There may be very good reasons for the differences, but some are more difficult to explain than other


Moscow's approach towards de facto states after Kosovo's recognition

08/08/2013 -  Giorgio Comai

Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008 marked a change in Russia's approach towards Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the months preceding the war in Georgia in August 2008. Five years later, a short journey through this change in Moscow's official rhetoric


Musical Dialects of the South Caucasus

19/06/2013 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

Funded by a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, three students from the United States and Gibraltar are researching and recording traditional music in the South Caucasus to make it available online


Elva, crowd-sourcing conflict in the South Caucasus

15/05/2013 -  Onnik Krikorian Tbilisi

Elva is a platform developed in Georgia that allows to easily receive feedback from local communities via SMS. Successfully used to map local needs along the ABL with South Ossetia, it could soon be used elsewhere


Life in Gali

29/04/2013 -  Francisco Martinez

In his contribution for the dossier “Abkhazia, twenty years after the war”, Francisco Martínez shares with Osservatorio's readers the materials he gathered in late 2010 while visiting the region, including video interviews in Gali, Sukhumi and Tbilisi


The impossible dreams of Georgian foreign policy

18/12/2012 -  Tengiz Ablotia Tbilisi

"Georgian Dream", the government coalition led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, promised to continue with Euro-Atlantic integration and, at the same time, get closer to Moscow. Yet, not everything seems to go as planned


In Abkhazia, worried about the language law

06/11/2012 -  Giorgio Comai

The law "On the state language", approved by the authorities in Sukhumi in 2007, risks exacerbating inter-ethnic relations in Abkhazia, a territory that remains largely multi-ethnic, even after the ethnic cleansing that happened during the war. Our correspondent went to Abkhazia to find out more about it. A feature story


Aleksey Gogua, a writer in Sukhumi

03/04/2012 -  Giorgio Comai Sukhumi

Aleksey Gogua is one of the most notable Abkhaz-language writers of the twenty-first century. During the Soviet era, his novels were translated into Russian and hundreds of thousands of copies were printed. Literature in Abkhazia today, relations with Russia, the situation of the Abkhaz language. An interview


Go Group Media: life as it is in the Caucasus, on film

29/03/2012 -  Giorgio Comai

The basic idea behind Go Group Media is simple: give a camera to people from all walks of life, living in isolated parts of the country, and tell them to make films about their lives or things that matter to them. The result is an amazing way to get to know the lives of people living in different parts of the Caucasus


Georgia, world leader in pirating

21/02/2012 -  Tengiz Ablotia Tbilisi

Recent estimates give 93% of the software used in Georgia as pirated. Nearly everyone uses illegal software without seeing it as breaking the law. Shops in Tbilisi sell computers with Windows and other programmes already installed without the licence. Music shops happily sell copies of CDs and DVDs. In the short term the situation doesn't look like changing


Gendercide in the South Caucasus

14/12/2011 -  Giorgio Comai

“A boy is OK, a girl is not”. In the Southern Caucasus, male newborns outnumber females by more than 10%. Experts have no doubt that the cause lies in the practice of selective abortions, an already-known phenomenon in China and India. This clearly shows how gender inequality is still highly present in the region


The "homo georgicus", the oldest European man

11/11/2011 -  Maura Morandi Dmanisi

The oldest human remains found outside the African continent are in Dmanisi, Georgia, and date back to 1.8 million years ago. It is the homo georgicus, a hominid species which, by evolution, seems to be intermediate between the homo habilis and the homo erectus. The discovery was possible thanks to the steadfastness of the Georgian researchers, along with international archeologists, including Italian ones


Bidzina Ivanishvili – a billionaire goes into politics

08/11/2011 -  Tengiz Ablotia Tbilisi

Those interested in Georgia's politics have not been talking about anything else. Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia (185th in the world), had been leading a private life until recently. But in early October he announced his entry into politics, challenging the government and opposition


Young lawyers struggle in Georgia

13/10/2011 -  Giorgio Comai Tbilisi

Georgia's Young Lawyers' Association (Gyla) is one of the largest NGOs in Georgia. It provides free legal counselling to all those who need it. It is often critical of the government and demands more transparency. It struggles against the judiciary in a country where the acquittal rate in the capital, Tbilisi, stands at just 0,04 percent. An interview with Ekaterine Popkhadze, Gyla's executive director