one of reasons why I am less-than-impressed with appointment of Alexander Kartozia as #Georgia's ambassador to Germany -- he was Minister of Education from 1998-2003, at a time of rampant corruption.

This was not a little bribe here and there, as in Armenia or... some contexts.

Corruption then was robbing families & students. Robbing their money & robbing them of their education.

Great academics, like Alexander Rondeli? They were pushed OUT of universities, as they got in way of a purely criminal enterprise.

A generation grew...

if you follow #Georgia, you have heard about the beatings in especially designated mini-vans -- not in the heat of an arrest or maybe subduing, but afterwards, deliberate & systematic.

And here you can see this for yourself, as it happened this evening by Tbilisi Mall. In four parts.

Here you see just after arrest. 1/ On next video, you need to look closely -- you will see the man in the van thumping someone, it's a clear hitting motion.

It even seems you can hear it. Almost all of these riot police wear tactical gloves, i.e. ones with hardened knuckles.

In this context, these gloves are not for protection, but to inflict injury.
@Giorgi_Gogia
@robinwagener @Mikiashvili_M

A tiny clique in charge of the ruling party has stolen Georgia's European future. They stole that European future in good part by bribery, intimidation, direct violence, and some manipulation of the voting process.
The tiny clique also took that future away by overwhelming many voters with their dystopian vision of the world -- a vision that has nothing to do with Europe.

Where the vote was comparatively free and fair, in parts of Tbilisi's capital, the opposition parties clearly won. 1/n The evening of the vote, we could see two starkly contrasting realities -- two exit polls, sponsored by the opposition, that put the opposition parties clearly ahead. While I am cautious/skeptical about exit polls, these polls closely tallied each other.

You can of course believe that these efforts coordinated to represent a manipulated reality. I tend to believe that overall they likely represent the actual will of the people. 2/

The implementation rules of so-called transparency law in #Georgia have been released – I previously called it a “repress anyone you want law.” That is what it is.

(Let's not forget all the shills who misrepresented the law, too.) 1/freiheit.org/south-caucasus… Organizations have to submit declarations this summer. The requirements are retroactive (!), reporting for 2023.

The reporting is *transparently* designed to overwhelm organizations. The declaration Excel form has twelve (yes: 12) worksheets.
2/

what goes on in #Georgia right now is best described as a coup: "an unlawful seizure of power", in this case by a small clique under direct instructions from BI who in his paranoia has become a kind of Macbeth of the Caucasus.
1/ Constitutional order is sidelined to follow paranoid ravings and on April 29 we heard Macbeth in Tbilisi having his go at the ghost of Banquo, sitting in the empty chair. (BI's obsession is the spectre of Credit Suisse as global war party.) 2/ read:

https://x.com/robertamsterdam/status/1788542794140659976

one good person wrote he shared recent Jacobin article on the NGO law bc he found it refreshing & "offering a different perspective". Draws lots of Likes and Retweets.

If you don't know much else about #Georgia, you will read about "hyper-political NGOs". 1/ ...and this will be a dominant feature stuck in your mind.
Yes, if you are a corrupt regime that has been massively robbing from people of Georgia, those who even merely *highlight* that fact are "partisan" & "hyper-political", and you will seek to eliminate them.

Here... 2/

when the GD gov claims that the non-profit sector in #Georgia is particularly non-transparent, it has not provided *a shred* of evidence.

Back in 2016, we had actually looked at 150+ think tanks around the world -- and found that Georgia had among the most transparent... 1/

https://twitter.com/transparify/status/748147088362438657

sectors of all the countries we looked at.
There was zero politics to the claim at the time, there was just genuine reason to be proud, as @Transparency_GE @EPRC_Georgia @IDFIGeorgia had been real leaders (unprompted) when we first looked at them. 2/ @ISET_PI @PMCGofficial

yesterday at the #Tbilisi Art Fair -- ran into various friends, and saw some things I really liked.
Here the Hive, where various artists could showcase their work. 1/ here "Kobi", George Kobiashvili, with strong symbolism, and lots of detail, and a v expressive rendering of the figures. 2/

fantastic tour of modernist #architecture in #Yerevan with Ruben Arevshatyan, two days ago, at end of "Soviet Legacies" conference. Will post a few things I learned about this great city that I did not know before in this thread, over next days.
What a guide!
#Armenia so much to see in a fairly compact space -- and modernism as a defining characteristic in that city, with Alexander Tamanian being more to #Yerevan that Georges-Eugène Haussmann arguably was to Paris. 2/n

Armaz Akhvlediani and Ana Natvslishvili, opposition deputies, propose banning most fireworks -- to reduce injuries (40 hospitalized in January), many under-18, plus mass deaths of birds. 1/ I really hope this goes through -- and have a big centralized firework, rather than people feeling that their wedding is not complete if it doesn't also have big outdoor bangs. 2/ 1tv.ge/news/ana-nacvl…

though the horse has bolted, of sorts, here my analysis of "the law". It is squarely bad faith.
You can sensibly call it the "we can repress anyone we like" law.
I can compare it with an analysis I did of such transparency laws in 2017 more globally, for @TAInitiative 1/ as I argued back then & citing @SaskiaBrech, not yet related to Georgia, there are clear tell-tale signs when a law has bad faith.
This law here has all of them. 2/

today, EthnoFest in #Tbilisi (alas only realized it happening late afternoon), with plenty of great things you can get if you
-- enjoy #crafts
-- want to support local business, or
-- are thinking abt gifts already
Below some of my favourites. 1/n This won the overall prize (congrats!!!) & was my favourite: fairly simple, evocative of #Tbilisi & #Batumi #architecture, nice #lighting addition somewhere in a flat, neat product. 2/n

final town-hall session still many in audience after very full @TbilisiZeg day.
Ukraine, the broader context, notes on caution & context & reflections. "are we here today because there wasn't a Nuremburg trial for the Soviets?", asks @antelava w reference to comment by Giga Bokeria that there hasn't been enough of a reckoning with the crimes of communism. @TbilisiZeg

session "How to Get the Bad Guys"
with Oleksandra Matviichuk @avalaina, one of Nobel Peace prize winners,
Anna Neistat @AnnaNeistat
moderated by @peterpomeranzev
at @TbilisiZeg "how do you approach your work of holding people accountable? Do you look for patterns?"
@avalaina & @AnnaNeistat describe how they assemble evidence, but the question: for who? So many cases, worry that only a few will/can be prosecuted.
#WarCrimes

"Keeping #Ukraine in the Global Media Spotlight" -- @littlemedia12 @yarotrof @RachelCorpTweet @polinaivanovva --
Next session at the @TbilisiZeg keeping attention has an impact -- opinion polls show the public support in West is there, often ahead of governments, and this matters on the ground. In some cases, supporting even increasing, says @yarotrof at @TbilisiZeg

Forgotten Wars, Open Wounds -- @NorthAndrew and @saadmohseni abt the conflicts that we do not pay attention to. #Georgia slipping from minds; Iraq protests in 2019; Afghanistan now.
Third session in @TbilisiZeg in #Tbilisi. .@saadmohseni In Afghanistan, "we paid a very heavy price for the victory over Soviets", the question I ask about #Ukraine -- how will this end? "The American have been very fickle."

"Rethinking Colonialism" in context of #Ukraine, w @yermolenko_v, John Lee Anderson @peterpomeranzev moderated by Nino Japiashvili, parallel session, crowded room. .@yermolenko_v Western colonialism was overseas, emphasized difference, RU colonialism was on land, and the domination was based on claim of sameness, "you are unable to be different", therefore focus on #memory, we are only in the beginning of analyzing this. #Ukraine

"Outside the Western Bubble" - 2nd session @Raniaab and @catapluma, moderated by Jon Lee Anderson.
Anderson: the RU narrative is there & has hold in Latin America & other locations.
Via Chavez, recounting how self-described anti-imperialists want multipolar world.
@TbilisiZeg in mid-2000s, many countries very much looking to Iraq as precedent, aggressive GWB posture, says Anderson, felt they needed to counterbalance American hegemony.
(This as backdrop to how situation seen now.) #Zeg22

"we are in a race with the progagandists around a question of who can understand audiences better", says @peterpomeranzev and "the most damaging myth is the marketplace of ideas", associated w "a completely discredited theory of rational choice" at @TbilisiZeg the authoritarians understand audiences very well, they have done that for decades, media needs to catch up. @peterpomeranzev
Investigations remains very relevant, at the same time media need to expand what we do. (abbreviating his argument, this is Twitter)
@TbilisiZeg

w the jailing of Nika Gvaramia, I would suggest we bury (once and for all) the term of "polarization" when it comes to politics in #Georgia. This has been one of the least helpful prisms from which to analyze Georgian politics over the last 5-8 years 1/n "Polarization" (or the also terrible: mudslinging) visually implies a kind of horizontal symmetry, in which there is one side and another having a go at each other as if it's rival hooligans on a street @MovementDroa 2/n

Here is a terrible, truly terrible, piece on #Georgia in @jacobin magazine. I won’t link to it, it's not worth your time, other than to show just how truly deluded many socialists in the US are, in making excuses for the #SovietUnion & #Russia. 1/n That part really deserves attention and key takeaway: don’t trust a *single* paragraph of what you read in #Jacobinmag, if you do not know the issue yourself. (hello @DemSocialists) CC @ichbinilya @GilbreathDustin 2/