Full coverage of the military confrontation between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia can be found on The Caucasian Knot. In particular, the site links to opinion and commentary from bloggers, journalists and analysts. The Caucasian Knot is at http://blog.oneworld.am,

Following last weekend’s BarCamp in Tbilisi, one of the event’s main organizers, Giga Paitchadze, briefly considers its success and provides a small glimpse into the Georgian blogosphere. Also known as DvOrsky [GE], the blogger claims to be the oldest in the country. Global Voices Online interviewed Paitchadze after the Caucasus BarCamp.

GV: How would you describe the blogging scene in Georgia?

GP: About 5 percent of all internet users in Georgia have blogs. With Internet penetration now at about 10 percent of the whole population, then that means about 10-15,000 bloggers. However, this figure would include both active and inactive bloggers, i.e. with one post only.

The main language is of course Georgian, and the second is Russian because many bloggers use LiveJournal and have a large audience there in terms of friends, people making comments, readers and visitors.

As there are no catalogues or any services where Georgian blogs are classified and where some statistics are available, I’ll say that the most widely covered topics are politics, music, sport and other outdoor or lifestyle activities, tech news, IT and everything else.

Also there are many bloggers who just write about everyday life.

The full post and interview accompanied by photographs is available on Global Voices Online. Comments can be left on the original post.

Sirusho, Arabkir, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

With the first of the semi-finals in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, just days away, the countries of the South Caucasus are becoming increasingly excited about the international song contest and how their representatives will fair. What makes the situation all the more interesting is that this year will be the first time all three republics compete.

While this will be the third consecutive appearance of Armenia in the competition, Georgia entered for the first time last year, and Azerbaijan will be making its debut. However, of the three contestants, it is Armenia that currently appears to be the favorite not only from the region, but in general as well.

The British bookmaker William Hill currently has 21-year-old Sirusho at 6/1 to win and the popularity of her song, Qele Qele, has extended way past the borders of the country as the Eurovision Blog confirms.

Another tune almost certainly destined for the final is the Armenian entry, Qele Qele. As one of the countries whose national final we paid attention to, we’d heard this one before it was chosen but having heard the other options, we were screaming “Armenia! Choose! This! NOW!!!!!!!!!” before a note of the contest had even been sung. Coming over as Shakira crossed with a healthy dose of Helena Paparizou, only an entirely tone-deaf performance from Sirusho can possibly stop this one from bringing the house down on the night.

All Kinds of Everything for Eurovision 2008 agrees.

ARMENIA : This just gets better and better with every run through. Sirusho sounds confident and looks a lot more confident that before. The choreography is complex and involves a lot more rolling on the floor than I would like, but it is effective for the overhead shots. They have almost all the camera angles right, which is more than can be said for several entries, and even if the song is a tad repetitive, the dancing and fireworks add a bit of variety.

Other people may be less impressed but for me this is an absolutely certain qualifier, and it’s not totally out of the running to win.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Two days after Saturday’s presidential election in Georgia, Asking Tough Questions in Tough Places takes a fresh look at the outcome. With a pre-election and an exit poll pretty much tallying with parallel vote tabulation held during the vote, Christine Quirk concludes that the opposition should realize it’s game over. Probably it should now concentrate on contesting the parliamentary election which will be here soon enough.

Instead of wasting their supporters’ energy and anger by making them stand outside in the freezing cold for no good reason, the opposition parties (such as they are) should focus their resources on organizing around Misha’s shortcomings as a leader and creating a viable alternative. They need to be thinking about the next election now (or, rather, yesterday). Continued carping about this one diminishes their own credibility both with the Georgian electorate and the international community.

Additionally, in advance of the parliamentary elections, they should talk to the Ukrainians about creating a partisan election monitoring program (starting NOW). They need to have a legal, PR and grassroots strategy in place that documents, challenges, quantifies and systematically publicizes election violations. Even the Azadaliq coalition in Azerbaijan managed to get part of a program in place in 2005 (a lot of good it did them, but like the Georgians, before they met with the Ukrainians their idea of challenging the election was running everyone out in the streets to get their heads beaten in by the authorities).

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Even though international election monitors from the OSCE/ODIHR concluded that yesterday’s presidential election vote was “broadly democratic” and “the first genuinely competitive presidential election in the country, enabling the Georgian people to express their political choice,” TOL Georgia has since read the much longer preliminary report.

Compared to the earlier statement read out at today’s press conference, the “significant challenges which need to be addressed” are actually quite alarming.

“The distribution of vouchers for such things as utilities and medical supplies to vulnerable groups was criticized as an alleged misuse of budgetary funds in support of Mr. Saakashvili.”

“The vouchers prominently displayed that they were a subsidy from the President. Healthcare vouchers, as well as employment scheme leaflets, featured visually outstanding number “5”s – the number on the ballot under which the UNM has run in elections since 2004. Distributors of vouchers sometimes asked recipients whether they would vote for Mr. Saakashvili, and asked them to sign documents confirming their support. Vouchers were in some cases distributed from UNM offices.”

[…]

“The campaign was overshadowed by widespread allegations of intimidation and pressure, among others on public-sector employees. These included a number of confirmed cases of pressure on opposition supporters by the police and local officials to desist from campaigning, threats of arbitrary arrest or job dismissal and cases of landlords who were pressurized not to let premises for use as opposition campaign offices. Isolated instances of violence against opposition activists, including kidnapping, were reported and verified.

“A debate between the four main contestants did not take place as Mr. Saakashvili chose not to take part and his three main rivals conditioned their participation upon the opportunity to debate with him.”

[..]

“In addition, observers found CEC-produced stickers with the text “Where will you be on 5 January?”, with the “5” in a red circle visually resembling that used on Mr. Saakashvili’s campaign materials.”

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Although the international media is now reporting a victory for the incumbent, Mikhail Saakashvili, in yesterday’s presidential election in Georgia, there has so far been very little reaction to the news in the blogosphere. This contrasts strikingly with how bloggers worldwide reacted to the clashes between opposition supporters and riot police in downtown Tbilisi on 7 November.

Even though it was precisely those clashes which led to a state of emergency being declared, as well as an early presidential election, perhaps that’s not surprising. Tear gas, rubber bullets and outrage from international human rights groups is probably more newsworthy than something as increasingly predictable in the former Soviet space as elections.

Nevertheless, there were some active bloggers posting updates on the election although its certain that they will not be pleased. Today at 3pm local time, international observers effectively gave yesterday’s vote a clean bill of health despite TOL Georgia reporting numerous cases of intimidation and bribery, problems with voters lists and media bias.

Now, a few hours after international observers described the vote as “broadly democratic… enabling the Georgian people to express their political choice,” TOL Georgia gives its own verdict on the outcome of the election.

It is rather hard for me to believe that Saakashvili won the elections in the first round. The exit polls aired at 10 pm yesterday, which claimed Saakashvili’s victory with over 50%, prompted [premature] celebration and a pop concert among Saakashvili’s supporters. it should be noted that the organizations and medias that conducted these polls are affiliated with the authorities.

[…]

[…] The foreign observers so far say they didn’t encounter extraordinary violations which would change the end results. The votes are being counted — 10% so far. The opposition claims victory and mass violations.

[…]

The election monitors “hailed the elections, but noted some shortcomings” - usual mumbo jumbo. It would take breaking into the polling station, violence and changing the ballot boxes when the monitors were inside for them to note something. To be fair, they must listen to what the opposition says. The final reaction is yet to be publicized.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

In a matter of a few hours at time of writing, Georgians will go to the polls to vote in a presidential election called prematurely after a state of emergency followed opposition protests in Tbilisi at the beginning of November. After Mikhail Saakashvili came to power when street protests forced his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, to resign during the so-called “Rose Revolution,” things have improved significantly in Georgia.

However, many Georgians are quite openly critical of Saakashvili. While still believing in the premise of the 2003 revolution and still convinced of the need for reform, many consider him mentally unstable and even question the official account of the circumstances surrounding prime minister Zurab Zhvania’s untimely death in 2005. Even so, despite some setbacks, Georgia was considered a beacon of relative democracy in the South Caucasus.

Until November 2007, that is. When riot police used excessive force, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse an opposition rally in downtown Tbilisi, concerns about democracy in Georgia came to the fore. Today, the former Soviet republic’s democratic credentials will again be put to the test. However, the BBC reports that the opposition are already crying foul.

The main opposition candidate in Georgia’s snap presidential election has accused the authorities of preparing to rig Saturday’s vote.

“What is currently happening in Georgia is not a free election,” Levan Gachechiladze said in a statement broadcast on Georgian television.

[…]

Mr Gachechiladze complained that “we cannot use media outlets or promotional means”.

He added that a “smear campaign” was being staged against the opposition in the media.

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With 2008 less than a day away at time of writing, it seems only appropriate to take a look back at the blogging highlights in the Caucasus for 2007. Certainly, although blogging is still largely underdeveloped, the year has seen some major highlights, especially with regards to stories that also made headlines worldwide. In the past this has not been the case, but the signs for Armenian and Georgian blogging look very promising indeed, and not least because the first two months of 2008 will see crucial presidential elections take place in both republics.

Although the same might be true for Azerbaijan as its presidential election scheduled for late next year looms closer, the elections seem to have encouraged citizens, activists and journalists to blog. Other high profile events also seem to have pushed more bloggers to engage in online discussion on key issues, especially in the arguably more evolved Armenian blogging scene. Interestingly, however, the first major blogging event of the year came on 19 January 2007 when journalist and editor, Hrant Dink, was murdered in Istanbul, Turkey.

Although Dink was a Turkish citizen and resident in Armenia’s neighbor to the West, he was also an ethnic Armenian and prolific in his calls for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks. His views might have alienated himself from the larger Armenian Diaspora who consider that Genocide Recognition is the most important issue facing Armenians today, but the point was that his assassination shocked the world, including many Turks in Turkey itself as well as those with no links to Armenian circles at all.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

One refreshing addition to the Georgian blogosphere as the January election approaches is Georgia Ink, the blog of cartoonist Vladimir Shioshvili. With elections in the South Caucasus generally tense, Shioshvili injects some humor into proceedings by asking, for example, why was the State of Emergency lifted at 7pm?

Anyway, here’s hoping we get something similar here in Armenia in time for the February presidential election. Until then, Georgia Ink is at http://blog.shioshvili.com.

Jibs at TOL Georgia sent me a link to an article in the Georgian Times earlier on today that looked at the coverage various Internet sites such as Flickr and YouTube as well as blogs gave to last week’s clashes in Tbilis, the Georgian capital. Along with Resistance Georgia and TOL Georgia’s excellent coverage, my post for Global Voices is also mentioned.

TOL Georgia (http://blogs.tol.org) carries an article by ‘jibs’ headlined “Georgia: Democracy in Crisis.” This is one of a number of articles under the heading ‘Saakashvili’ that have been building up during the week. One of these directly quotes the GEORGIAN TIMES. Another blogging website is Global Voices (www.globalvoicesonline.org). This is a “non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.” A post from Wednesday by Onnik Krikorian is entitled: “Georgia – End of a Fairy Tale?” This is a summary of blogs from various sources. One of the most interesting is from an Armenian blogger on Unzipped: “Just listened to President Saakashvili’s speech on the latest developments in Georgia, involving the forceful dispersal of the opposition demonstration. He put the blame on Russia again. I think Russians need to pack on and leave somewhere towards South America, so that they are not blamed for Georgia’s internal affairs. How can all this be blamed on Russia? Are those 70,000 people that showed up in the first day of the protests ALL Russian puppets? Long live our saviour and protector against the Russian dark magic!” The Global Voices blog however also directs readers to pro-Saakashvili comments on other blogs, such as “There are huge possibilities for good in this country and I hope that the President, Saakashvili, is smart enough to be able to quell this thing without having to resort to Soviet era tactics of repression. I will be an unequivocal supporter of him if he can figure out a way to address the core of what the protestors are saying.”

Internet contributions are not usually moderated and therefore have much more scope to be opinionated. But perhaps the most remarkable of the internet comments come from a source designed to be entirely neutral. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia already has an entry on the “2007 Georgian Demonstrations”. It does warn readers that this is a current event and that the content of the article may change as it unfolds. But it gives a full account of events so far and now purports to be a finished article. It includes a timeline of the events leading up to the demonstrations and some international reaction. Encyclopedia articles about historic events are usually not written or published until well after the event, when hindsight has lent a different layer of meaning to what happened. An encyclopedia article written about something while it is taking place will be a valuable addition to the yet-to-be-written history of this period.

Internet activity gives people who have no other outlet the chance to express their views to the world. Every view under the sun is therefore likely to appear. The tone of the internet activity visible so far is resolutely opposed to the government’s actions against demonstrators, and its arguments are based primarily on this occurrence rather the wider range of concerns expressed by government and opposition and in print media.

It’s worth pointing out that the quote The Georgian Times attributes to Unzipped is actually by Jibs at TOL Georgia, but I’d like to say that Artmika has done a wonderful job of covering events as they occur in Tbilisi. The same is true for Jibs at TOL Georgia. The full article is here.

Via TOL Georgia and Unzipped, the former President of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, Anna Dolidze, has set up a blog dedicated to “non-violent resistance to Saakashvili’s dictatorial regime in Georgia.”

I am a human rights lawyer from Tbilisi, Georgia. I currently live in New York and work as Albert Podell Global Fellow at Risk at the New York University School of Law. Previously, I was a President of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association.

http://resistancegeorgia.blogspot.com/