I PROMISED in last week’s column to give some proper thought to the situation in Georgia this week in light of their elections last weekend. I’m not the only one who has been looking in detail at the country.
Georgia sits on the Eastern end of the Black Sea, with a population of 3.6 million mostly Georgians (87%) then Azerbaijanis (6%) and Armenians (5%) and some Russians (0.7%) with Russia to the north, and Armenia and Azerbaijan to the east and south along with Turkey.
Georgia has gone through spasms of being independent, subsumed, invaded and independent again for millennia, with the Ottoman, Mongol and Russian Empires all moving back and forth through the region.
In the more modern era, it emerged briefly as an independent state in 1917, only to be invaded by the Red Army and made a Soviet Republic in 1921.
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It finally achieved independence along with Armenia and Azerbaijan with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
A rocky period followed until the Rose Revolution of 2003 which ushered in an avowedly anti-Russian and pro-Western government which set EU and Nato membership as the aim of the state.
War with Russia followed over the de facto independent and Russian-backed South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions which nominally seek independence but are in reality Russian proxies. The 1990s saw tens of thousands of people forcibly moved within Georgia.
So in a tough neighbourhood, we’d be forgiven for thinking it is a basket case.
Not in my experience. Having visited a few times, I’ve met some of the nicest, funniest and kindest people, a fascinating mix of East and West, and some of the best cuisine (and certainly wine!) I’ve ever tasted.
Left to their own devices, the region could be a draw for investment and tourism. Left to their own devices …
The people of Georgia are still very much in the Kremlin’s shadow, as last week’s election sadly showed.
The government Georgian Dream Party claimed victory (for a fourth term no less) with 53% of the vote in an election that was criticised by international observers, the EU collectively and 13 EU foreign ministers in even blunter terms.
“We condemn all violation of international norms for free and fair elections.
“We share their concerns and demand an impartial inquiry of complaints and remedy of the violations established.
“We stand in this difficult time at the side of Georgians. It is important that protests and in particular government reaction to them remain peaceful.”
The EU’s outgoing High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell was similarly blunt: “The developments in Georgia following the October 26 parliamentary elections are very worrying.
“International observers reported violations during the election campaign as well as on election day.
“They have also not declared the elections to be free and fair.
“Georgia is an EU candidate country and as such, it has to demonstrate its commitment to European values, starting with full transparency in the election process.
“Integrity of elections and upholding the rule of law are cornerstones of democracy and an integral part and fundamentals of the EU accession path.”
The Commission went even further on Wednesday with the publication of its assessment of the progress each candidate country has made in the last year.
A fascinating series of documents in itself covering the Western Balkans, Türkiye, Ukraine, Moldova as well as Georgia, the Georgian assessment was particularly bleak.
The Georgian Dream government has implemented a series of laws which are flatly contrary to the EU’s values, in particular a law on the protection of minors and another on “Foreign Agents” which has been viewed, correctly, as a crackdown on civil society and NGOs.
The Commission has recommended that they all be scrapped or else accession – which remains the stated aim of the government – cannot be said to be happening.
So at time of writing the international community has largely not recognised the election, the president of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, has also refused to ratify it. She refused to recognise the result and even spoke openly of a “Russian special operation” to buy votes and intimidate voters.
It remains to be seen at present where this goes – the president has called for demonstrations and tens of thousands of Georgians have rallied in front of the parliament in Tbilisi.
However, the government – for the moment at least – controls the military and police, as well as has tacit backing from the Russian legal and casual forces throughout the country. Georgia is almost certainly in for a continued protracted period of instability.
The US President Joe Biden has also been vocal, with some comments that will resonate with Georgians in a way European statements have not.
But to my mind, it is the EU who should be more active and more vocal, and indeed more generous with funds and resources for pro-democracy groups.
The oligarchs with dirty Russian money have been sending like drunken sailors to buy and bully votes, while the EU has issued a strongly worded series of comments.
More needs to be done to boost and assist those who seek to join us in the EU, and much as we’re not ourselves in the EU right now, it is every bit as much in our interests to see them come towards us than retreat back into the Russian orbit.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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