Latest news with #FelixLight
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia jails third opposition leader as crackdown expands
By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian opposition politician Nika Gvaramia was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday for up to nine months, the latest of several prominent government critics to be jailed. Having weathered mass demonstrations over a disputed October election and a subsequent decision to halt talks on joining the European Union, Georgian authorities have moved to clamp down on leading figures of the protest movement. Gvaramia had refused to testify to a parliamentary commission investigating alleged wrongdoing under jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was in power from 2004 to 2012. If convicted of failing to comply with the commission, he could be jailed for up to one year. Gvaramia is a leader of the pro-Western Coalition for Change bloc which came second in the October election that the opposition rejected as fraudulent. The government rejected the allegation, but two U.S. polling organisations said there was evidence of manipulation. Gvaramia did not attend his court hearing, instead reporting to prison before the verdict was announced, in what his party said was an effort to show the decision was pre-determined by a biased court. In a post on Facebook, he wrote: "Not one step back! Our homeland is behind us! The oligarchy must fall! Glory to Georgia!" Two other Coalition for Change leaders, Zurab Japaridze and Nika Melia, are already in jail on similar charges. A media entrepreneur who served under Saakashvili in a series of ministerial roles, Gvaramia was previously imprisoned for abuse of office from 2022 to 2023, in a case Western countries said was politically motivated. Traditionally one of the Soviet Union's most pro-Western and democratic successor states, Georgia has moved in a sharply authoritarian direction in the past two years, with the ruling Georgian Dream party passing a series of laws critics have described as draconian. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as the country's most powerful man, has repeatedly pledged to ban opposition parties, whilst also presiding over warming ties with Russia and souring relations with the West. Earlier this week, authorities issued court summons to over a dozen activists, journalists and opposition politicians on charges of insulting ruling party lawmakers. On Thursday, a court jailed a 21-year-old protester for four and a half years for assaulting police, in a case government critics have said is fabricated.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In Armenia, rising ceasefire violations bring fears of war with Azerbaijan
By Felix Light KHNATSAKH, Armenia (Reuters) -Nightfall is an anxious time for residents of Khnatsakh. Every evening at around 10 p.m., automatic gunfire echoes through the tiny village in Armenia, locals say – the sound of Azerbaijani troops firing into the night sky from their positions across the border, high above. The bullets regularly hit houses, though no-one has been hurt, so far, the villagers say. Azerbaijan denies its troops have been shooting across the border, and has accused Armenian troops of violating the ceasefire. "It's very tense because at home we have the children, the little ones, and the elderly," said Karo Andranyan, 66, a retired mechanic. A hundred metres from his front door, on the hillside, an Azerbaijani military position with a flag fluttering in the breeze is a reminder of the proximity of Armenia's bitter rival. The heavily militarized, 1,000-km border has been closed since the early 1990s. The countries have fought two major wars in the past 40 years, destabilising the Caucasus - a region that carries major oil and gas pipelines toward Europe, and is strategically important to Russia, Iran and Turkey. Rising tensions along the border are increasing the risk of new clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan as they approach a critical juncture in a tortuous peace process, two experts told Reuters. In March, the two sides said they had agreed the outline of a peace treaty that could be signed in 2026, raising hopes of reconciliation. The draft envisions the two sides demarcating their shared border, and requires Armenia to amend its constitution before Azerbaijan ratifies the deal. But since then, reports of ceasefire violations along the border have surged, following months of relative quiet. Andranyan said he thought the nighttime gunfire was meant to intimidate the villagers and the small garrison of Armenian troops stationed there. The village - which census data said had a population of 1,000 - was emptying as locals feared a return to conflict, he said. "What are we supposed to do?" Though there have been no fatalities on the border since last year, incidents of cross-border gunfire are reported regularly. Most of the accusations since March, which describe cross-border gunfire and occasional damage to property, have been made by Azerbaijan against Armenia. Both sides have repeatedly denied allegations of ceasefire violations. The simmering conflict has shifted decisively in Azerbaijan's favour since 2020, as the oil and gas producer recaptured territory lost in the 1990s and progressively re-established control over the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh where ethnic Armenians had established de facto independence since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2023, it retook all of Karabakh, prompting the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee en masse to Armenia. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing last month there was a "real risk" of war between the two. He said that the U.S. wanted Azerbaijan "to agree to a peace agreement that does not cause them to invade a neighboring country, Armenia." Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in power since 2003, said in January that Armenia presented a "fascist threat" that needed to be destroyed. Laurence Broers, an expert on Armenia and Azerbaijan at London's Chatham House think tank, said that though a return to full-scale war was possible, more localised skirmishes were more likely. He said Azerbaijan, whose population of 10 million is three times Armenia's, has few incentives to agree swiftly to a peace treaty and may instead rely on smaller scale escalations to force its neighbour to make further concessions in the talks. 'Escalation and militarization has been a very successful strategy for Ilham Aliyev,' he said. Armenian authorities have repeatedly insisted there will be no war. In a speech last month, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the two countries would not resume fighting, 'despite all the arguments, all the provocations'. In response to questions about the border tensions, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry referred Reuters to its previous public comments. In a statement in May, it said that Baku is committed to peace and has no territorial claims on Armenia. It said that Yerevan's actions "call into question Armenia's commitment to peace". Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry has consistently denied Armenian reports of cross-border gunfire. TENSIONS IN THE SOUTH Armenia's southernmost province of Syunik is at the heart of the dispute and is where most ceasefire violations are reported. Syunik separates the main body of Azerbaijan to the east from the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the west. It also provides a vital trade route for Armenia to Iran, which it borders to the south. Azerbaijan has since 2020 demanded Armenia provide it with a corridor through Syunik to Nakhchivan. Baku has said that the passage would remain Armenian territory but have minimal controls from the capital Yerevan. Some Azerbaijani officials have also suggested that southern Armenia is historically Azerbaijani territory, though they have not pressed a formal territorial claim. In addition to its border with Azerbaijan, Armenia's frontier with Turkey – a close ally of Baku's – is also closed, making its boundary with Iran a lifeline for trade. A corridor through Syunik could risk shutting off its access to the remote, mountainous border. Armenia and Iran have warm ties, despite Armenia's Christian religion, and increasingly pro-Western orientation. In 2022, Iran was Armenia's fourth-largest source of imports. In May, Tehran's defence minister visited Yerevan, with Iranian media quoting him as expressing Iran's opposition to redrawing borders in the region. The dilemma is heightened by Armenia's strained ties with traditional ally Russia, which opposes Armenia's bid to draw closer to the West, and which has deepened its links with Azerbaijan. "Armenia has two open borders, one with Georgia, and the other one with Iran. And this keeps the country going,' said Tigran Grigoryan, director of the Regional Centre for Democracy and Security think tank, in Yerevan. Grigoryan said that Azerbaijan's demands for the corridor could be the spark for future military escalation. He suggested that the ceasefire violations may be an effort to force Armenia into making concessions on the issue. "If Armenia loses its border with Iran, that would be a catastrophe,' he said. The Iranian and Russian foreign ministries did not reply to requests for comment. Throughout Armenia's isolated south, the importance of the Iranian connection is clear. Along the single route that links the two countries, Iranian road workers are labouring to expand a narrow, zig-zagging mountainside road clogged with lorries from south of the border, heading north towards Georgia and Russia. Along the way, some locals sell plastic bottles full of red wine to truckers newly arrived from Iran, where alcohol is banned. At Armenia's southernmost tip sits the historic town of Meghri, the gateway to Iran. Only 16 km away from Azerbaijan, the town of 4,000 has seen its daily life overshadowed by tensions with Baku, deputy mayor Bagrat Zakaryan said. 'Given the recent events in Karabakh, and what the president of Azerbaijan has been saying, there is this feeling of fear,' he said. OPPORTUNITY FOR PEACE Others are more optimistic about the prospect of peace. Until 1993, Armen Davtyan was the deputy director of Meghri's railway station, which sat at a crossroads connecting Yerevan to Baku, and Iran to the Soviet Union, until the latter's 1991 dissolution. But after the 1988-1994 Karabakh war and the closure of the frontier, the tracks connecting Armenia to Azerbaijan were ripped up and Davtyan went to work as a border guard. A rusted train, emblazoned with a Soviet emblem, lingers outside the station building, now a derelict shell metres from the Iranian border. Davtyan said he fondly remembered the pre-war days, when Armenians and Azerbaijanis worked together on the railways, and hopes that one day cross-border trains might again pull into Meghri station. "I do understand that some people are scared that if the railway reopens, the Azerbaijanis will return," he said. "But if in 2025, people are still scared of us opening transport links, I think that's a little absurd."
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia to shutter EU and NATO information centre as ties with West fray
By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -The Georgian government is to close its information centre on NATO and the European Union, Georgian media reported on Wednesday, citing the country's foreign ministry, amid souring ties between Tbilisi and the West. According to its website, the information centre aims "to engage our population in Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration processes and to gain their well-informed support". The centre, opened in 2005, is based in a large building on Freedom Square in downtown Tbilisi and flies the flags of the EU, the NATO military alliance and Georgia. Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the centre is to be merged into the foreign ministry and that some staff have been told they are to be dismissed. The ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Georgia has been an EU candidate member since 2023, while NATO said in 2008 that the mountainous country of 3.6 million would eventually join the alliance. But though once among the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia's government has in recent years moved to clamp down on domestic critics, while also rebuilding ties with former imperial overlord, Russia. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader, has said the EU and NATO are controlled by a shadowy "global war party" that seeks to topple the government and drag his country into war with Russia. Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream party in November 2024 paused EU accession talks until 2028, abruptly halting a popular national goal that is written into the country's constitution. The EU has said Tbilisi's application has been frozen over laws on "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that Brussels has criticised as restrictive and influenced by Russian policies . Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU and NATO, but that it also wants to keep the peace with its huge northern neighbour, as well as preserve the country's traditional Christian values. The United States imposed sanctions on Ivanishvili last December, accusing him of dismantling Georgian democracy in the interests of Russia. Tbilisi and Moscow have had no formal diplomatic ties since 2008, when Russia defeated Georgia in a brief war over two Moscow-backed separatist regions.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Second Georgian opposition leader placed in pre-trial detention as crackdown widens
By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -A Georgian court on Friday placed Nika Melia, a leader of the country's main opposition party, in pre-trial detention, amid a widening crackdown against a pro-Western opposition that has staged months of anti-government protests. Melia, a top leader of the Coalition for Change opposition bloc, was detained on Thursday for refusing to appear at a parliamentary inquiry into alleged crimes committed under jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili between 2004 and 2012. The length of the detention was not immediately clear. Last week, a judge placed another leader of the Coalition for Change, Zurab Japaridze, in pre-trial detention for refusing to appear before the inquiry. Friday's hearing was disorderly, with Melia sentenced after being removed from the courtroom for throwing water at the judge from the dock. Previously one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, Georgia under the leadership of the Georgian Dream party is accused by the ruling bloc's critics of moving in an authoritarian and pro-Russian direction. Georgian Dream says it still wants the country to eventually join the European Union but wants to preserve what it calls Georgia's traditional values and also to avoid conflict with Russia, its giant neighbour and former imperial ruler. Separately on Friday, another judge jailed a 19-year-old student activist for 12 days for insulting a Georgian Dream lawmaker she had called a "Russian slave" in a cafe this month. Georgian Dream, after winning an election last November that the opposition says was rigged, said it would halt talks on joining the EU till 2028. EU membership has wide support among Georgians and the goal has been enshrined in the constitution. The ruling party's decision to suspend the talks sparked mass street protests, prompting a violent crackdown and large-scale arrests by security forces. Georgian Dream is dominated by billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader. In December, the United States sanctioned Ivanishvili for what it said were actions aimed at dismantling Georgian democracy for the benefit of Russia.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgian court places opposition leader in pre-trial detention for contempt of parliament
By Felix Light TBILISI (Reuters) -A Georgian court on Thursday placed Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of the country's largest opposition party, in pre-trial detention, as the government clamps down on dissent after major protests last year. It was not clear for how long he had been put into custody, according to Georgia's Interpress news agency. Japaridze, a prominent leader of the Coalition for Change, which came second in last year's parliamentary election, had refused to appear at a parliamentary inquiry into alleged crimes committed under jailed former President Mikheil Saakashvili, between 2004 and 2012. Japaridze had been held in contempt by parliament, and refused to pay bail in order to avoid jail. He and other opposition figures say the inquiry is an illegitimate propaganda exercise by the ruling Georgian Dream party. A baseball cap-wearing libertarian with a following among younger Georgians, Japaridze has been among the most prominent figures at street protests since last year. He has said he carried a gun until his license to do so was revoked by a court amid last year's protests. The ruling came amid a large police presence outside the court building, alongside a protest of opposition supporters. Georgian Dream's powerful founder, billionaire ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, has in recent months repeatedly pledged to ban opposition parties for what he says are their links to Saakashvili, who remains deeply divisive among Georgians. Previously one of the most pro-Western and democratic of the Soviet Union's successor states, critics of the Georgian government say the country has in recent years moved in an authoritarian and pro-Russian direction. In November, shortly after a parliamentary election the opposition said was falsified, the ruling party said it would halt European Union accession talks until 2028, abruptly freezing a long-standing and popular national goal that is written into Georgia's constitution. Georgian Dream says it still wants to eventually join the EU, but also wants balanced relations with Russia, which ruled Georgia for around 200 years until 1991. It says the October election, in which it gained a majority of seats in parliament, was free and fair. Georgia and Russia have had no formal diplomatic relations since 2008, when Tbilisi was defeated in the latest in a series of wars with two Russian-backed breakaway provinces.
