In the first eight months of 2025, Azerbaijan’s trade turnover with Saudi Arabia increased 2.4 times compared to the same period last year.
Month: October 2025
Bidzina Ivanishvili’s open letter
On the 13th anniversary of Georgian Dream’s victory in the 2012 elections, the party’s honorary chairman and Georgia’s de facto ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, published an open letter warning of “internal and external enemies” of the government. He claimed that foreign adversaries see the upcoming municipal elections on 4 October as an opportunity for inciting unrest and a possible coup.
In the letter, Ivanishvili described Western countries as “external forces disguised as friends and partners, who were forced to openly admit that they demand Georgia’s submission to their interests.”
He also referred to what he called “blatant betrayal within the Georgian Dream team”, saying this had created a real risk of derailing the country’s development path and paving the way for the return of forces loyal to “foreign interests.”
Ivanishvili’s open letter
“For me personally, the hardest part has been witnessing open betrayal within our team in recent years. This not only sparked a crisis within Georgian Dream, but also posed a real threat to the Georgian people and our country, risking a deviation from our development path and a return to leadership under forces loyal to foreign interests.
In the past, some members of our team believed that yielding to influential foreign powers or prioritising personal comfort over the interests of our citizens could bring them greater benefit. We endured this. The support of the Georgian people has given me and our team the will to fight and strengthened our belief that we can overcome any challenge,” Ivanishvili wrote in the letter.
According to him, attacks on Georgia’s sovereignty are becoming more frequent and intense, although “certain forces” are now compelled to act not because of internal enemies, as was the case before, but due to external pressures.
As a result, the country’s informal leader believes, “agents” embedded within opposition parties and NGOs have weakened. Yet Ivanishvili insists that the public must still clearly understand which forces are trying to bend Georgia to their interests:
“They easily replace one familiar face with another, swap one party for another, or even switch one television channel for another to deceive our citizens. They can introduce new foreign politicians onto the political stage, so-called influential experts acting against Georgia, who will replace those already caught in lies. They find it hard to accept that they can no longer deceive us,” Bidzina Ivanishvili writes.
As Ivanishvili notes, authority for the Georgian people is not about names, titles or manufactured influential politicians — it is about the truth.
“On 4 October we face another test — to defend our unity, the ideals of 1 October, and the gains of past years. In the upcoming local elections, internal and external enemies see yet another opportunity to provoke unrest, stage a coup and pursue their own goals.
More and more people are seeing these forces’ true intentions, their support is shrinking by the day, and state institutions in Georgia are stronger than ever. Their only remaining option is a direct attack on the state and, therefore, on the people.
Against this background, on 4 October we have the chance to show once again that our struggle today is to turn out to vote, make a free choice, and preserve peace and stability. Today we can cement the peaceful victory won by Georgian Dream in 2012, leave radicalism and confrontation behind, and together fight for development and prosperity — to finally overcome poverty, strengthen sovereignty and peacefully unite the country!” Ivanishvili said.
Just published my op-ed on Why I, as a young man from Azerbaijan, aspire to Europe & what I expect from the EU–South Caucasus partnership. 🌍✨
Sharing my perspective on democracy, integration & regional future.
Read here 👉 https://t.co/da8FSJicDq#SouthCaucasus #EU— Mammadov Riad (@Mamedov1703) October 1, 2025
Azerbaijan is preparing a comprehensive “National Strategy for the Efficient Use of Water Resources” aimed at establishing modern water management and water sustainability systems across the country. The primary goal of this strategy is to ensure the efficient, sustainable management, monitoring, and protection of Azerbaijan’s water resources.
On October 1, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev arrived in Denmark for a working visit at the invitation of Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen and President of the European Council António Costa to participate in the 7th European Political Community Summit, Azernews reports.
Over the past year, 434 incidents have been documented against journalists, media outlets, and media-focused civil society organizations, according to the Center for Media, Information and Social Research (CMIS), a local watchdog group that describes Georgia’s media environment as in “critical state.”
The group said the incidents – in some cases involving multiple types of violations at once – included “physical violence, unlawful detention and arrest, interrogations, filming bans, denial of access to administrative buildings, illegitimate fines, verbal abuse, threats, and other forms of mistreatment.” The report noted that no offenders have been held accountable.
“Since November 28, a total of 181 media representatives have been affected while covering the demonstrations alone,” the group’s October 1 report said. On November 28, 2024, Georgian Dream halted the country’s EU accession process, triggering the still-ongoing protests.
The report documented 122 cases of physical violence against journalists – 82 assaults and 40 other instances of harm, including the use of chemical agents during protests. It also recorded 104 cases of unlawful interference in journalistic activity and 102 legal cases, including fines for road blockages, court summonses, illegal detentions, restrictive legislation, SLAPP lawsuits, interrogations, and verbal warnings.
In addition, 108 cases of verbal abuse were documented – 65 insults, 22 cases of intimidation, and 21 instances of discrediting. The report also cited 29 cases of damage to journalists’ property. It also documented 22 violations of labor rights, including dismissals, disciplinary sanctions, and restrictions on labor rights, all of them in the Public Broadcaster.
The report also highlighted the case of Mzia Amaghlobeli as a “politically motivated” conviction. Amaghlobeli, founder of the Batumelebi and Netgazeti media outlets, was detained in January after slapping Batumi police chief Irakli Dgebuadze during a tense protest, and in August she was sentenced to two years in prison.
Also Read:
- Repression in Numbers
- 01/07/2025 – Journalists Face Coverage Hurdles as Court Recording Ban Takes Effect
- 02/05/2025 – Georgia Falls 11 Places to 114th in RSF Press Freedom Index
- 05/03/2025 – Europe Press Freedom Report: Rapid Decline of Press Freedom in 2024 in Georgia
- 30/10/2024 – Media Ombudsman: Election Day Was Marked by Violence, Intimidation Against Journalists