At the event “Leveraging the NDC Partnership’s Model of Collaboration to Accelerate Ambitious Climate Action,” UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell emphasized the critical importance of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the global fight against climate change, Azernews reports.
Day: November 20, 2024
“According to the latest data from the World Travel and Tourism Council, the tourism sector generates 10 percent of global GDP and employs 1 in 10 people. For many developing countries, including small island states and least developed countries, tourism is a lifeline – providing income, employment, and foreign exchange,” Azernews reports, citing Ecology and Natural Resources Minister, President of COP29 Mukhtar Babayev, as saying at the First Meeting of Ministers on Improved Climate Action in the Tourism Sector held on November 20 in Baku within the framework of COP29.
A video showing police, including riot units, entering the Tbilisi State University (TSU) grounds minutes before dispersing peaceful protesters on the other side of the academic building at dawn on November 19 has sparked outrage among students and the public. The police allegedly used the university area to quietly cross to the other side and launch an offensive against peaceful protesters.
“Can someone explain to me why the riot police were using the university premises to plan the special operation? Where do I work? Am I the TSU lecturer or the MIA officer?” Lado Napetvaridze, a political science lecturer at TSU, wrote on social media.
Despite the growing backlash, university officials, including rector Jaba Samushia, have remained silent. Founded in 1918, TSU is one of the country’s oldest educational institutions, but it has long been accused of lacking independence under the current Georgian Dream (GD) government, which has struggled to quell waves of student resistance.
Georgia’s current Prime Minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, who taught at TSU’s law faculty, decided not to hold classes this semester after his heavily guarded Saturday lectures were met with student protest during the spring demonstrations against the Foreign Agents Law.
Now, weeks have passed since the October 26 elections, and students across Georgia have voiced their criticism of what they say were rigged elections. TSU however has not allowed its students to enter university premises to protest. But it allegedly opened its doors wide for the police to crack down on them.
“The university’s door is open to companies that rob people, to banks, as well as to political regimes, police, riot police, even if it means dispersing and intimidating its students,” the May Student Movement said in its statement. It accused the university administration and its rector Samushia of letting the police use the university grounds for police crackdown. The May Student Movement calls on them to resign.
Samusia has not yet commented on the matter. The university administration and the academic council have also remained silent. Only a few lecturers expressed their serious concern about the alleged use of academic spaces by the police to disperse citizens.
“Using TSU territory as a springboard for riot police to disperse peaceful protesters is a gross violation of all standards of academic social responsibility,” wrote Iago Kachkachishvili, the head of TSU’s Sociology Program, on social media, calling on Rector Samushia to clarify the incident.
“There is no place for police in the university,” the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Salome Dundua, wrote on Facebook.
“Tbilisi State University has always been, is, and must remain the institute of transfer of knowledge, education, academic and research experience, and national values. What has happened, in fact, calls into question this purpose and these values and tarnishes its reputation,” she added.
The ongoing non-stop protests, now in their third consecutive day, organized by the opposition forces, with participation of youth, reclaimed the TSU area on the evening of November 19. The protesters plan to stay near the university for another night to peacefully protest the elections.
Early on November 20, the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that “neither in the building nor in the garden there was any kind of [MIA] headquarters and no employees of the Special Task Department were mobilized there.” However, MIA added, “The employees of the criminal police entered the University garden after the protesters set fires at the central entrance of the garden.” [Due to cold weather protesters kept warm by lighting fires in metal containers during the rally.]
On November 20, professors from across Georgia’s universities issued a statement “strongly condemning” the alleged use of TSU premises to violently disperse rally participants. “The university, the door of which must always be open to students and professors, has acted contrary to this principled goal – it has closed the door to them and let in power structures to disperse peaceful rally participants, including students of the same university.”
The news article was updated at 12:15 p.m. on November 20 to include statements from MIA and Georgian professors. The news article will be further updated if and when the University’s Academic Council and/or Rector Samushia respond to the matter.
For more updates, follow our election live blog.
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At the U.S. State Department’s daily press briefing, Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the U.S. State Department “will continue to take other policy actions as appropriate” regarding Georgia.
“The comprehensive review is still ongoing, but as you know…We have already suspended assistance as a result of that review. So it’s not like the review is ongoing and nothing has happened. We have already taken policy actions as part of that review, and we will continue to take other policy actions as appropriate,” the Spokesperson Miller said.
In late May of this year, the United States launched a comprehensive review of all U.S.-Georgian cooperation in response to the Georgian parliament’s passage of a Russian-style foreign agents law aimed at stifling civil society and dissent.
Since then, the U.S. State Department has imposed visa restrictions on dozens of Georgian officials; the Treasury Department has sanctioned four Georgian individuals, including two senior MIA officials responsible for the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters; the U.S. has cut more than $95 million in aid to the Georgian government; and the Noble Partner exercise has been postponed “indefinitely.”
In addition, there have been reports that the U.S. has already drafted the sanctions package against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the GD Honorary Chairman and the country’s billionaire de facto ruler.
After Georgia’s disputed parliamentary elections in October, the United States joined other international partners in calling for a full investigation of the elections.
Two bills, the Georgian People’s Act (GPA), introduced in the U.S. Senate, and the MEGOBARI Act, introduced in the House of Representatives, propose sanctions against Georgian officials responsible for undermining Georgia’s democracy.
Also Read:
- 23/10/2024 – 10 More Senators to Co-Sponsor Georgian People’s Act
- 06/09/2024 – Sen. Shaheen: GD Wants Georgia to Be a Dictatorship, Not a Democracy
- 12/07/2024 – Interview | Uzra Zeya, U.S. Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights
- 24/05/2024 – GD Accuses U.S. of “Blackmail”, Downplays Restrictions
- 27/05/2024 – “MEGOBARI Act” Envisages Sanctions for Undermining, Injuring Georgian Democracy