Stalin, the
second main leader of the Soviet Union, was born in Georgia, perhaps this is
part of the reason why this small country in the Caucasus has preserved its
remarkable buildings and churches from other eras and never became a purely
Soviet type of landscape.
After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia became independent in 1991, and decided
not to be part of the Community of Independent States (CIS) created among
Russia and other former Soviet States.
Georgia claimed its democracy and took its own path to becoming an
international interlocutor. After
Sheverdnadze´s Presidency, and after the Rose Revolution, Mihail Sakaashvli
became the President of Georgia since 2004 and remained so for the last 9
years. Eliminating through several means the opposition that was arising in
Georgia, he created a strong state under his own powers and it is only in
recent years that the laws were changed so that the Georgian Parliament could
rule and have increasing powers in the political sphere of the country.
An awkward
moment in this evolution was the war between Georgia and Russia of August 2008.
A war that meant for Georgian citizens despair, displacement, and loss of
economic opportunities. On the other
hand the “de facto” entities South Ossetia and Abkhazia have declared their
independence and broken away from Georgian control. The rest of the territory is known by the
acronym TAT, Territory Administered by Tiflis (the capital). Georgians cannot pass into to these two
entities and an “administrative border line” (ABL) has been created around the
break-away regions. The “de facto”
leaders in these regions are working on a process of borderisation and
division, while the region´s independence has only been recognized by Russia,
Nicaragua, Venezuela and two islands of the Pacific; Tuvalu and Nauru.
After the
signature of the peace agreement by Medvedeev and Sarkozy (President of the EU
during the crisis) the EU established a peace monitoring mechanism, a mission
on the ground, known as EUMM.
The
situation on the ground has been developing these last years but the suffering
of Georgians who cannot go to school on the other side of the ABL, or visit
relatives, or take their cows and animals, among other things, is still
persistent. Several camps for internally
displaced people (IDPs) have been built, some with the funds of the Georgian
government, some with the funds of other international actors, EU member
states…
Last 1st
October 2012 there were Parliamentary Elections in Georgia. The two main
contenders on this occasion were the party of the President, United National
Movement (UNM) and all the opposition parties that have been recruited somehow
by a rich Georgian citizen, Ivanishvili, around the Georgian Dream (GD).
The
election campaign was tough; there were a lot of legal cases of irregular
funding of the parties standing for the elections, cases taken to court and
even the imprisonment of some GD candidates , even for minor issues so they
could not campaign. Also some irregular
cases of use of administrative funds, buses, places, events for campaign
purposes arose. A video was released 2/3
weeks before E-day, the video contained images of the abuses in certain prisons
in Georgia. These abuses brought part of the population discontent with the
administration to manifest against the government to ask for resignations of
several persons in charge of prisons, justice… rallies became very populated
and serious, and ended up achieving part of the demands.
Finally
when E-day arrived, the Georgian population which, before this incident, was
not confident enough to vote freely and thought that changes were impossible,
became more confident and turned out to vote. Even E-night was busy and
complicated, and many electoral premises registered incidents. Civil society
and the people of Georgia controlled and followed all incidents so the
elections could be qualified as free and democratic, still with some
shortcoming and things to improve but free and democratic. In the end, the UNM was overturned and
Georgian Dream won the elections. The
Parliament has, since then, a majority of members from the opposition party and
this party wants also to ease relations with their Northern neighbour
Russia. The interaction of last months
of a Parliament in hands of one party and President in hands of a different
party has brought some obstacles to the political life in Georgia. The next step, decisive for the political
future of the country, will be the next Presidential Elections that are
foreseen for November 2013.
Meanwhile,
relations with Russia started to normalise and at least commercial exchanges
are taking place: direct air travel between both countries has been
reestablished, the famous Borjomi water from Georgia is sold again on the huge
Russian market, as well as famous and highly valued Georgian wine and other
food products, so people have a larger income and live a little better. The bottom line of all democratic aspects and
support, one cannot forget, is the wellbeing of the population, and certainly
one step, a large one, has been taken in our neighbouring and beautiful country
that lays nestled in the Caucasus.
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