Tag Archives: Georgia

Two new opposition parties emerge from one in Georgia

TBILISI, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two new parliamentary minority factions — European Georgia and European Georgia for a Better Future — have emerged from the group of 21 MPs who quit the UNM opposition bloc earlier this month, leaving the once all-powerful party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili barely surviving.

The party split did not take people by surprise. Disagreements among party members had become increasingly vicious and public, especially after the UNM’s crushing defeat in October’s parliamentary election. Many of the arguments focused on whether the divisive, bombastic Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in exile in Ukraine, should still play a role in the UNM.

In an email interview with The Conway Bulletin, Akaki Bobokhidze, one of the MPs who left the UNM, said that Mr Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 until 2013, was now a political hindrance.

“Saakashvili thinks that it is not possible to defeat Bidzina Ivanishvili [the patron of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition] and to change the government through elections,” he said.

“There is a difference in how those who stayed and those who left evaluate the past and the errors that the UNM made, especially in the human rights field. The two groups take considerably different views of the party’s future.”

The 56-year-old Mr Bobokhidze is one of the most experienced MPs in parliament having won his seat in 2001 as a member of the now defunct Initiative Group. Known for his fiery temper, he has been involved in brawls inside parliament.

Mr Bobokhidze’s had been a staunch ally of Mr Saakashvili and it was clearly with some reluctance that he agreed to split from the main UNM party. It was only in December that he was urging the party to unite around Mr Saakashvili.

“Saakashvili is the politician that made the corrupt post-Soviet Georgia into a successful country. Regardless of his position in the party, I hope he will remain a successful politician in Georgia’s political history,” he said in his interview.

Mr Bobokhidze said the new parties’ focus would be on winning control of local councils at municipal elections later this year and then concentrating on building alliances to win back power in parliamentary elections scheduled for 2020.

And this collaboration could still that the remaining UNM parliamen- tarians, Mr Bobokhidze’s former col- leagues, have a role to play.

“Our new party is open for collaboration with all the parties that shares our values and think that the informal governing of Ivanishvili is damaging our country,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Gulf Air to fly to Georgian capital

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, said it will start up a three- times a week service to Tbilisi. The move is just the latest announcement from an international airline to connect with Tbilisi. In December Qatar said it would fly to Tbilisi four times per week. Passenger numbers at Tbilisi airport have increased by 50% from 2010. It is building a new arrivals terminal to deal with the larger passenger flow.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgia president criticises new gas deal

TBILISI, JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili criticised a high-profile gas deal struck with Russia by energy minister Kakha Kaladze as a threat to national security, exposing a deep fissure in Georgia’s politics.

Commenting on a new agreement that will see Russia pay to transport gas across Georgia to Armenia, instead of giving Georgia 10% of the volume on a barter arrangement, Mr Margvelashvili’s official spokesperson, Eka Mishveladze, said Mr Kaladze was playing a high-risk game.

“The issue of Gazprom is more than just a business agreement, this is security, foreign policy and geopolitics first and energy and economy after that,” she said.

Although elected on a Georgian Dream ticket, Mr Margvelashvili has increasingly distanced himself from his former colleagues, preferring to present himself as an independent voice. Georgia is set for a presidential election in 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kerry stopes over in Georgia

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — John Kerry, the outgoing US Secretary of State, landed briefly in Tbilisi for what was described as a technical stopover. He was en route to Vietnam, the focus of his farewell tour after four years as the US’ top diplomat. Mr Kerry met Georgia’s deputy foreign minister David Zalkaliani at the airport. For Georgia, even a short stop by Mr Kerry is a positive endorsement of its pro-Western agenda.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia-based Zenith lists on LSE, raises $.2.77m

TBILISI, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Calgary-based Zenith Energy completed a share listing on the London Stock Exchange, raising £2.3m ($2.77m) to fund the debt repayment and exploration costs at its oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, Italy and Argentina.

Zenith Energy signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar in March 2016 to jointly develop the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab oil producing sites, 240km inland from Baku. They are the biggest onshore oil fields in Azerbaijan and had produced up to 9,000 barrels of oil a day at their peak during the Soviet Union. They now produce around 300 barrels a day.

At the time of the deal Zenith’s CEO, Andrea Cattaneo, said that new techniques and infrastructure investment could reboot the fields and boost production.

Now Zenith has raised more cash to help pay for this exploration.

Commenting on the listing on the London Stock Exchange, Mr Cattaneo said: “We believe that the Company’s listing on the Official List will provide a supportive platform to help us achieve our ambitious growth objectives.”

Zenith Aran Oil Company was the Virgin Islands-registered company set up Zenith Energy to push the Azerbaijani projects forward.

Zenith’s shares in London started trading at 7p but moved to over 10p.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

EBRD to support power station construction in Georgia

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will part-finance a new $14.3m hydropower station on the Lukhuni river in Georgia, media reported. Georgia produces much of its power from hydropower stations. Like its neighbours, Georgia is trying to boost its power generation capacity to keep pace with demand. The new power station will have a capacity of 17MW.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia agrees for gas transit fee with Russia

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major success for Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze, Russia will start paying for the right to pump gas across Georgia, scrapping a barter arrangement that had allowed Georgia to keep a 10% share of the gas. Russian officials had resisted the shift to monetary payments but appear to have relented at talks in Geneva. Mr Kaladze did not name the transit price agreed with Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia sends first wool exports to Britain

TBILISI, JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia has started shipping wool to Britain, media reported, an important first step towards integrating its exports into the EU.

The Georgian Wool Company said it had exported 22 tonnes of wool to Britain in December and that it was preparing a second batch of 45 tonnes for export in January.

“Our British partners were satisfied with the first test shipment and placed an additional order,” Zaur Yuliev, a director at the Georgian Wool Company told Agenda.ge.

The deal is important to Georgia because it is the first animal product export to the EU. Georgia received permission to export wool to the EU a year ago and sees it as an important new market.

In July 2016 it signed an Association Agreement with the EU that was primarily aimed at helping it to export fruit, vegetable and other animal products to the EU. Georgian honey has been touted as a potentially major export.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Wine exports grow in Georgia

JAN. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia exported 50m bottles of wine last year, media reported quoting the National Wine Agency, a 38% increase on 2015 exports. Russia bought more than half of Georgia’s wine exports, highlighting just how important it is as a market. The next biggest importers of Georgian wine were Ukraine and China. China doubled its imports of Georgian wine to 5m bottles.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Suspected arsonists torch Muslim cultural centre in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge

TBILISI, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian investigators travelled to Duisi, the largest village in Georgia’s predominantly Muslim Pankisi Gorge, to inspect a suspected arson that damaged a Culture House run by the Kakheti Regional Development Fund (KRDF) earlier this month.

KRDF members said that jerry cans with fuel and oil were found inside the building and that the fire was an arson attempt.

The fire, sources said, highlights increased tension in the Pankisi Gorge between reactionary Islamists and more liberal thinkers. The IS extremist group has successfully recruited men to join their forces in Syria from the Pankisi Gorge.

Iza Bekauri, spokesperson for KRDF said that the centre has previously been threatened.

“There have been threats that we should get out of the Gorge. They said our work here in this place is unacceptable and we should leave,” media quoted her as saying.

The KRDF is a government sponsored programme that aims to help refugees in the Pankisi Gorge integrate. These are mainly ethnic Chechens who escaped from fighting in Russia’s North Caucasus in the early 2000s.

As well as providing legal assistance to Chechen refugees, the the community centre promotes educational and recreational activities for both youths and women.

A KRDF employee who wanted to remain anonymous told The Conway Bulletin that some radical elements in the Pankisi Gorge were against women using the centre.

“They like our educational activities but they don’t like our cultural events, women engagement and Women Council’s work,” he said.

Levani, a local dentist, said that a lack of education was the problem.

“Some young men don’t like the idea of women being more independent. Chechens have been living there for long time and they love Georgia. The problem is Pankisi is a remote and isolated part of our country. The problem is not Islam, the problem is limited education”, he said.

The KRDF has said it will consider suspending its activities if the area is deemed unsafe.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)