Press Digest 09.09.2014
Mamuka Areshidze: I have heard over the grapevine that the Nationals are discontent with their leaders’ lax attitude
Today we are between a rock and a hard place -- it does not matter whether you will annoy Russia or will refrain from doing it”
Georgian text books torn up in the region of Abkhazia
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Mamuka Areshidze: I have heard over the grapevine that the Nationals are discontent with their leaders’ lax attitude
"I have reiterated that the “National Movement” is a well-organized force the members of which, as a rule, take well-intentioned steps. The party has a vast experience in battling against their political adversaries, and today they are getting ready for taking revenge against their rivals. However, the Nationals’ taken steps must not throw us off balance. We must gauge everything calmly and, at the same time, we must realize that the National Movement does have financial resources to get even with their political opponents. The only thing they lack is electorate,” declares expert Mamuka Areshidze in his interview with the Alia gazette.
“The Nationals are particularly strong in holding PR campaigns. They easily use the mistakes by the authorities to their own advantage; precisely in the wake of this, the rating of the acting authorities has substantially decreased; and as a result of this, the ratings of the political groups under the Nationals’ patronage will eventually sore. They will finally try to trigger uproar from the public; The Nationals will definitely succeed in reshuffling their party; they may also move to different parties and even create their own bloc. I have heard over the grapevine that the Nationals are discontent with their leaders’ lax attitude; however, they have not formulated their strategy yet,’ maintains Mamuka Areshidze.
“The acting political biggies have proven resolute in their decision to remain committed to their chosen path to the EU. However, the Nationals stubbornly call the present authorities Russia’s staunch supporters in spite of the fact that the present authorities have strained to integrate Georgia with the EU; as for Russia, they simply attempt to cultivate trade and cultural relation with this state,” contends the respondent.
“With regard to NATO, I can say one thing for certain – only a document that will guarantee Georgia with security is of paramount importance for us today. Neither MAP nor the document we have already received from the alliance will grant a warrant of security to us. If we want to neutralize pending dangers from Russia, we must get hold of a document that will definitely ramp up our security,” asserts the expert.
Today we are between a rock and a hard place -- it does not matter whether you will annoy Russia or will refrain from doing it”
“All the three countries --Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova—are important for NATO today; that is why we all must strain to coordinate with the alliance more actively. This will, by all odds, yield more positive results for us. Frankly speaking, I don’t really think that in the immediate future Georgia will become a full member of NATO but this does not mean that we must abate enthusiasm and stop taking active steps in this direction. Against the dark background in Ukraine, the Georgian authorities must definitely grasp a unique chance of actualizing the issue of Georgia in the international stage,” declares director of the “Leaders Schools”, Gia Maisashvili.
“I think that it would be better if they involved themselves in a more active cooperation with Ukraine and Moldova. Incontrovertible is the fact that we have more vast experience in this direction than Ukraine and Moldova; and it’s not of crucial importance under which Government we have accumulated all this experience; the only thing that actually matters at this point in time is to use this experience to the country’s advantage,” announces Gia Maisashvili.
“Today we are between a rock and a hard place -- it does not matter whether you will irritate Russia. This country is an archenemy of Georgia and playing games with it will bring nothing good to us. The Government needs to elaborate a really effective strategy with regard to Russia; and I want to see this strategy as soon as possible. Once again I repeat, we must coordinate with Moldova and Ukraine more actively as only in this way we will help the USA or any other country in safeguarding us,” maintains the respondent.
“We cannot play the role of a frivolous player; we cannot stand aside by stating that only big states can play the role of leading players and can make really paramount decisions. Switzerland and Norway, for example, are small states but they do the lions share and are actively involved in the ongoing processes,” claim Mr. Maisashvili.
“They have only temporarily suspended active hostilities in Ukraine. I am sure that the situation will be aggravated here soon again. Ukraine is really in a scrape today; this state has a vast military potential; however, it cannot use this potential; if the leadership of Ukraine were more competent, they would definitely managed to get stronger support from the West,” concludes the respondent.
Georgian text books torn up in Abkhazia
The students of different villages of the region of Gali may reportedly be left without the Georgian language schools. As the Rezonansi gazette has been notified, a couple of days ago, the Russian militaries took over one of the schools in the village and tore up all Georgian language text books. Rumors are rife that they have also banned the people from taking the Georgian language text books in the region. The locals are talking regarding the possibility of setting new sanctions against the Georgian language population in the region and appeal to the Government to provide them with due assistance,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.
“Despite the fact that we were pelted with a number of problems here and were forced to live a dog’s life, we were still ready to pass through all difficulties if they allowed us to teach our children in the Georgian language schools. Recently, our school was raided by the Russian military and these vandals tore up all Georgian language text books in front of teachers. And this incident has obviously sparked panic in the region. Everyone is quivering with fear and think that they will soon find themselves in the similar situation. As the locals of the village of Otobaia claim, they will stage street rallies to express their protest against their barbarous actions. However, a logical question pops up here – against who must we express this protest? The people are in panic and have no idea what step to take next. That is why we urge the Ministry of Education of Abkhazia and Georgia to give us a helping hand. They aim to teach our children in the Russian language only and they started taking active steps to achieve the terrible goal several years ago,” declares one of the residents of the village of Gagida, Neli Rogava.
“One of the locals of Otobaia, Irma Salia, maintains that the situation here will be more aggravated after the inauguration ceremony of Raul Khajimba. They expressed their outright negative attitude towards Georgians as well as their language when we tried to take the Georgian language textbooks in Abkhazia. When we were about to cross the border, the Russian border guards stopped us and asked for what we needed this stuff. Finally they forced us to leave the Georgian language text books there. Despite this, thanks to different expedients, we managed to import these books in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia but later they seized control of all schools in the region. They want to replace the Georgian language schools with the Russian language ones and if they succeed in translating their intention into action, our life here will become purposeless here,” declared Salaia.
“As we have found out, Abkhazia’s Ministry of Education and Science falls short of information regarding the incident. “We obtained information regarding this fact from you; no such reports have reached our ears thus far. If this terrible allegations ring true, we will make strenuous efforts to learn everything in details and take adequate steps to hammer out a solution to the issue. We will definitely involve the Foreign Ministry as well as other bodies in this case,” announced Minister of Education and Culture, Dima Jaiani.
