Day: October 13, 2023
New US Ambassador Robin Dunnigan arrived in Georgia and met President Salome Zurabishvili, presenting her Ambassadorial credentials and conveying the best regards from US President Joe Biden. This ceremonial meeting at the president’s palace marked the beginning of Dunnigan’s ambassadorship in Georgia amid tensions in the US-Georgia relations.
President Salome Zurabishvili signed the new Defense Code into law amid controversies. Under the revised Defense Code, effective from 2025, all conscripts will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Defense Ministry, departing from previous practices. The provision exempting priests from compulsory military service was removed from the new code. Still, Orthodox priests will continue to enjoy exclusive privileges under the 2002 Constitutional Agreement between the Georgian state and the Orthodox Church.
The political parties “Girchi – More Freedom” and “Droa,” along with other opposition forces, media, and non-governmental organizations, launched a joint project – Mona.ge (Mona – მონა – is a Georgian word that means slave). This whistleblowing project aims to publicly identify and expose individuals supporting the Russian regime in Georgia. According to the project’s authors, information on the exposed individuals will be published on a bilingual website and a Facebook page. Mona.ge will also regularly share information with diplomatic missions and immigration services of Western countries.
In the meantime, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continues his almost three-day and one-meeting visit to Georgia. On 12 October, Hungarian and Georgian Prime Ministers jointly addressed the media in the eastern Georgian town of Telavi, speaking of commitment to traditional values, homeland, and core beliefs, including the religion and the sanctity of the family. Both leaders complimented each other for safeguarding and upholding authentic values and traditions. At the joint press conference, PM Garibashvili reiterated his political conviction that the decision not to grant Georgia the EU candidacy last year was unfair.
According to Transparency International-Georgia (TI-Georgia), the selection process of school principals launched by the Education Ministry is based on political loyalty and is driven by the possible use of school principals for electoral purposes in 2024. TI reported that the ministry nominated only one candidate for principal positions in more than 900 public schools, resulting in a “blatantly uncompetitive environment” and the exclusion of many candidates from the elections, depriving public school boards of a free choice. TI-Georgia further claimed that the political appointment of public school principals is illegal and unacceptable.
State Security Service continues its quest for the “training plot,” summoning Natalia Vatsadze, an actress, and Vakho Kareli, a photographer, for questioning. At the beginning of October, the security agency claimed it had uncovered a “training plot” funded by the USAID and involving Serbian trainers, recruiting activists for the violent overthrow of Georgia’s elected government. The US Embassy and the U.S. State Department have strongly denied the allegations as “false” and “mischaracterizing the nature of assistance.”