Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

Editorial: Gay marriage in Georgia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The issue of gay rights and gay marriage in Georgia has become increasingly heated. Each side loathes the other. There is little dialogue but plenty of insults and the odd clash.

Now a move by anti-gay right activists to try to enshrine marriage in Georgia’s constitution between a man and a woman through a referendum threatens to bring this animosity to a head. And at a dangerous time.

Even at the best of times, Georgia is a tinderbox. If the activists do collect the 200,000 signatures needed to hold a referendum the vote is likely to take place on the same day as a tense parliamentary election – Oct. 8.

Georgia is a conservative society and it is likely that the activists will be able to raise the 200,000 signatures. It was always going to be a long, fractious parliamentary election campaign. The prospect of a referendum on the same day deliberating on gay rights could make it explosive.

The role of the powerful Orthodox Church and various politicians and their rhetoric will be crucial in managing the various moods.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Merkel links Georgia visa- free access to Ukraine

TBILISI, JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen area for Georgia but linked it to a similar deal for Ukraine.

Ms Merkel’s statement during a meeting with Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Berlin could be seen as a boost to Georgia’s aim of gaining visa-free access to the European Union this year but the link to Ukraine is a complication.

It also comes a week after German politicians said they would block Georgia’s application for visa-free access because of links to organised crime.

“I expect that we can agree swiftly on the issue of visa liberalisation for citizens of Georgia,” media quoted Ms Merkel as saying.

One of Georgia’s main foreign policy objectives is to join the EU. Whether or not this is achievable is of secondary importance to most Georgian politicians to just making progress and visa-free Schengen access is considered a major prize.

But, significantly, Ms Merkel also underlined that she linked Georgia’s application to Ukraine’s

“For me, it is significant that Association Agreements between the EU and Georgia and also with Ukraine were signed at the same time,” Reuters quoted Ms Merkel as saying in reference to agreements signed in June 2014. “It is not very easy to explain to one country how things are with another.”

The problem for Georgia is that the European Commission is less likely to grant Ukraine visa-free access. Ukraine has a population of 45m, compared to Georgia’s 4.5m. It is also the focus of a geopolitical struggle with Russia.

Analysts have said that Ms Merkel may deliberately be trying to slow the process.

The flow of migrants from Syria into Germany and Turkey’s drive for visa-free Schengen access have made migration a politically sensitive issue forMs Merkel.

ENDS