New Year’s is the main winter holiday in the post-Soviet world, after the communists took Christmas customs and melded them into the more secular January 1. But Georgia’s mekvle tradition long predates this shift.
The Georgian government held a mass demonstration partly to claim that its supporters can outnumber protesters, a well-established tactic in Georgia’s political playbook.
Before it took power seven years ago, the Georgian Dream party asked citizens to put their wishes for the country in a box. Now, as the party is girding for critical elections, Eurasianet peeks inside.
Georgia’s behind-the-scenes ruler has made his most extensive comments to date on Georgia’s ongoing political crisis, also indulging in long digressions into psychoanalysis and motherhood.
“In Georgia, people used to go to demonstrations organized by politicians. What we achieved is that now politicians come to the demonstrations organized by people.”
Georgia has recently seen a burst of protest activity around political, cultural, and geopolitical issues. But a new poll highlights how the economy is by far Georgians’ biggest concern.
Thousands of protesters attempted to shut down parliament after the government promised and then reneged on electoral reform. Police removed the demonstrators, but the political crisis seems far from finished.
Georgians again took to the streets after the government backed down on a promise to reform an election system that gives a big leg up to the ruling party.
The Oscar-nominated “And Then We Danced” faced violent opposition from far right groups, and police were forced to guard theaters throughout the weekend.
Political and business leader Bidzina Ivanishvili plans to restore an abandoned Georgian spa resort, where Joseph Stalin used to frolic in radioactive waters, to its former glory.
From openhanded hospitality to fierce blood feuds, centuries-old customs are fading in Svaneti as the remote Caucasus highland becomes a trendy tourism destination.
