Day: April 12, 2024

Armenia will post a Military Attaché to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The government okayed the decision at a regular sitting today.

The Attaché will coordinate the military and military-political cooperation of the two states, will strengthen the level of bilateral cooperation, and present recommendations on the prospects of development of cooperation between the two countries.

An opportunity will be created for the effective work of the effective cooperation between the defense departments of the two countries, it will give a new quality to partnership relations in the military sphere and contribute to the further deepening of friendly ties, as well as the expansion of military and military-technical cooperation opportunities.

According to the Government, friendly relations and mutual trust between Armenia and the United Kingdom are based on common values and approaches and have serious perspectives for development. Armenia, being a participating state of the “Partnership for Peace” program, highly values the active role of the United Kingdom as an important bridge in the context of strengthening the Armenia-NATO dialogue, as well as developing relations with NATO member states, and closer and more effective cooperation in the field of defense.

Sentence for Lazare Grigoriadis

Tbilisi City Court sentenced 22-year-old Lazare Grigoriadis to 9 years in prison. He was arrested in March 2023 after protests against Georgia‘s foreign agents law.

His lawyer, Lika Bitadze, plans to appeal the decision in the appellate court. While she doesn’t hold much hope for a different outcome, she anticipates it may ultimately need to be taken to the European Court of Human Rights:

“Everything happened exactly as the defense anticipated. In this case, the court made a completely unfair, unsubstantiated, and shameful decision. We will file an appeal, though we expect the appellate court to uphold the city court’s decision unless the president pardons Lazare.“

Grigoriadis’s mother, Tamta Kalandadze, also expresses that the nine-year prison term was an expected verdict. She intends to appeal to the president for clemency.

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• “Why should US citizens see their money flowing abroad?” – Georgian Parliament Speaker against Western organizations
• “A law on foreign agents: If adopted, Georgia won’t join the EU,” legal expert comments
• Armenian NGOs support Georgian colleagues in the fight against the “foreign agents law”

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On March 31, it will be exactly one year since Lazare Grigoriadis, then 21 years old, has been in prison. Grigoriadis is the sole arrested participant in the March 2023 protests.

From March 7-9, 2023, massive rallies against the “foreign agents” law took place in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi.

Lazare Grigoriadis, who participated in these protests, is accused of committing a serious criminal offense—inflicting bodily harm on police officers and destroying state property.

According to the investigation, on March 7, during the rally, Grigoriadis threw Molotov cocktails at the police twice, and on March 9, he set fire to a police car.

Even before the case was discussed, leaders of the ruling party “Georgian Dream,” including former and current prime ministers Irakli Garibashvili and Irakli Kobakhidze, made statements against Grigoriadis. Lazare filed a lawsuit against them, seeking compensation for moral damages, but the court dismissed it.

In the footage used by the prosecution against Grigoriadis, a masked man wearing a cap and a hoodie is visible, making it impossible to identify him. Moreover, the expert who identified Grigoriadis in the video and wrote a “categorical conclusion” that it was indeed Grigoriadis, has only two years of work experience. Grigoriadis himself and his defense claim that he did not throw the Molotov cocktail.

The opposition and civil society representatives are convinced that the authorities simply “picked” Grigoriadis as the culprit because he “fits” into this role due to his tattoos, non-Georgian surname, and past convictions.

Sentence for Lazare Grigoriadis

Georgia becoming an autocracy

In its 2024 report, the non-governmental organization Freedom House declares that Georgia is evolving into a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime. In a study evaluating the level of democracy in states from Central Europe to Central Asia, Georgia, along with Hungary and Serbia, is grouped among the countries moving towards autocracy.

The report on Georgia states:

• Hybrid states moving towards authoritarianism, such as Hungary, Serbia, and to a lesser extent Georgia, according to the report’s methodology, are evolving into semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes.
• Key institutions, from media to judicial power, have exceeded the politicization boundaries of the classic definition of hybrid regimes and are now effectively under the control of ruling parties and used by them for their own purposes.

• Despite turbulent political years for both the urban and rural populations in these countries, the evaluation of Hungary, Georgia, and Kosovo remains unchanged.
• In March 2023, Georgia’s civil society narrowly averted a threat when mass mobilization of citizens and international pressure forced the government to withdraw the “foreign agent” bill.
• When both local and international advocacy is sufficiently strong, it is possible for subcategories of hybrid regimes to revert back, as demonstrated by Georgia’s freedom in March 2023, following widespread international declarations and mass protests against the Russian-style “foreign agents” law.
• The distinction between autocratic hybrid regimes and semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes is minimal, although the real divide lies between respecting the freedom of assembly and the fact that the state rarely resorts to physical violence to suppress dissent.

The humiliating defeat in Garabagh made Armenia choose the next location as the target. This time the venue is the Cow Garden in Jerusalem.

An international conference on “Smart environment and green technologies” is being held at Odlar Yurdu University.

The Armenian government has appointed a military attaché to the embassy of Armenia in the UK.

Growth in the non-energy sector in Azerbaijan is expected to rise to 4 percent in 2024. This is primarily due to the active expansion of the construction sector.