Day: September 12, 2025

Jailed Georgian journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli is reportedly among eight laureates of the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, several Brussels-based sources told Civil.ge. Brussels-based media outlets, including Politico and Euractiv, also reported her inclusion.

The Sakharov Prize, the EU’s top human rights award, has been granted since 1988 to dissidents, political leaders, journalists, lawyers, and civil society activists. The European Parliament bestows the prize, which carries a EUR 50,000 endowment, at a formal plenary session in Strasbourg each year.

This year’s candidates include Palestinian journalists and aid workers nominated by the Socialists party group; Belarusian activist and journalist Andrzej Poczobut, backed by the European People’s Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists; Budapest Pride, nominated by the Greens; and the late Charlie Kirk, put forward posthumously by René Aust of the far-right Identity and Democracy group on behalf of Germany’s AfD. Poczobut, a prominent critic of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko who remains jailed in Minsk, is seen as the frontrunner given the strength of his political backing.

Amaghlobeli was nominated by 60 members of the European Parliament, surpassing the required minimum of 40. In August, RFE/RL’s Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak wrote on X that she was “one of the favourites to win this year’s EU Sakharov Prize.”

Amaghlobeli, founder of the Batumelebi and Netgazeti media outlets, has already received the Free Media Award, given by Norway’s Fritt Ord Foundation and Germany’s Zeit-Stiftung, to honor journalists in Central and Eastern Europe who work under pressure. She was also named a finalist for the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize in August, alongside journalists from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Mzia Amaghlobeli was arrested in January after slapping police chief Irakli Dgebuadze during tense protest scenes in the western Georgian city of Batumi and is serving a two-year prison sentence after being convicted in August. Her case has drawn strong local and international scrutiny and is widely seen as politically motivated.

Also Read:

• 07/08/2025 – EU Condemns Mzia Amaghlobeli’s Arrest, Calls to Release ‘Unjustly Detained’
• 19/06/2025 – European Parliament Demands Journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli’s ‘Immediate’ and ‘Unconditional’ Release
• 19/06/2025 – European Parliament Debates Media Freedom in Georgia, Detained Journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli
  
  

Türkiye’s special representative for the Türkiye-Armenia normalization process, Ambassador Serdar Kılıç, paid a visit to the eastern province of Iğdır, where he met with Governor Ercan Turan to discuss ongoing dialogue with Yerevan and the regional significance of opening the Zangazur corridor, Azernews reports.

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From January to August 2025, Azerbaijan’s retail trade network sold a total of 2.453 billion manats worth of motor gasoline and diesel fuel to consumers, Azernews reports, citing the State Statistical Committee.

Opinion | The personalisation of power in Armenia endangers democracy  OC Media

Opinion about Georgian Dream

Security researcher Giorgi Shaishmelashvili assesses the current situation in Georgia, arguing that the defining feature of the ruling authorities is a mix of corruption and a brutal repressive apparatus.

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Giorgi Shaishmelashvili: “Georgian Dream is the worst government in Georgia’s post-independence history.

Leaving aside the military coup, we have had two changes of government. The main factor behind the discontent and mobilisation against Eduard Shevardnadze’s government was corruption. Against Mikheil Saakashvili, it was the repressive apparatus. The current government is a vivid combination of both: a corrupt regime backed by a brutal repressive machine.”

France’s Minister for European Affairs: “They are closing the door to Europe for the people of Georgia”

Benjamin Haddad confirmed that the introduction of sanctions against Georgian Dream is being considered at the European level.

But the key point is that Shevardnadze’s corruption and Saakashvili’s repressions unfolded against the backdrop of major national projects.

Shevardnadze was putting Georgia on the political map through pipelines and other large-scale ventures. In a war-torn country with weak state institutions, corruption functioned as a bad but reliable “social contract” to maintain stability.

Saakashvili, meanwhile, was building state institutions, fighting corruption and organised crime, and deepening Euro-Atlantic integration. For that, he relied on a repressive apparatus.

Still, of course, we were never going to tolerate Shevardnadze’s corruption or Saakashvili’s machine of repression indefinitely. The question now is: how long will we endure both at once under Georgian Dream?”

News in Georgia

The Netherlands-based ING Group, the country’s largest banking group, has forecast that Azerbaijan’s economy will grow by 2.3 percent in 2025, 2.5 percent in 2026, and 2 percent in 2027, Azernews reports.