A few hours after the first reports of fatalities during violent clashes in Ukraine surfaced, some Georgians took to Facebook to organise a small solidarity rally in support of Euromaidan protestors outside the site of the former parliament building in Tbilisi. The demonstration follows similar events held last year.
Last night saw another rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, in support of Euromaidan protestors in Ukraine. Unlike last week’s rallies, which were definitely more grassroots, the latest rally appeared more organised and of interest to local media, probably because of the involvement of Tbilisi’s Mayor and plans to illuminate a prominent building on the city’s central Freedom Square in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso has just published a few of my photographs of this week’s Ukraine Euromaidan solidarity action held outside the old parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Elva is a platform developed in Georgia that allows to easily receive feedback from local communities via SMS. Successfully used to map local needs along the ABL with South Ossetia, it could soon be used elsewhere
Strategically situated as a major conduit for vital energy resources, the South Caucasus has long been an area for competing regional and geopolitical interests. But while competition between Russia and the United States has preoccupied many analysts since 1991 when the three countries making up the region declared their independence from the former Soviet Union, some consider that Turkey could also play an important role in the Caucasus. Despite its well-known problems with Armenia, this is particularly true since tensions between Russia and Georgia culminated in the August 2008 war.
“Если вы получили мой SMS, это может означать одно из двух: либо мир между нашими странами на самом деле возможнен, либо теперь я в списке КГБ.”
“If you received my SMS, it can mean one of two things. Either peace between our countries is really possible, or I’m now on the KGB’s list.”
With reports that much of Russia’s military presence in Georgia has been withdrawn, reflection on a serious conflict which threatened to ignite the entire South Caucasus is becoming more and more the order of the day. For whatever reasons, and whoever is to blame, the conflict between Russia and Georgia was the most serious for years. Despite Russian claims of thousands dead, hundreds died in South Ossetia and Georgia proper, and tens of thousands lost their homes in military action reminiscent of the ethnic cleansing which devastated the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.