Issue #1319

Issue no: 1319

• OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021 • PUBLISHED WEEKLY

FOCUS ON IMPROVING THE ELECTION PROCESS

We speak to Giorgi Kalandarishvili, Chairman of the Central Election Commission

PAGE 7

PRICE: GEL 2.50

In this week’s issue...

NY Times: Georgia Still First Worldwide in Terms of Virus Spread NEWS PAGE 2

European Commission Rep: EU Assistance Must Be Accompanied by Clear Progress NEWS PAGE 3

The Mediterranean World at the Mercy of Geography POLITICS PAGE 4

The Future of Georgian Military Lethality POLITICS PAGE 6

ISET Economist | Desertification in Kakheti – a Threat to Kakhetian Agriculture?

US Secretary of Defense: This Is an Important Region, and Its Security and Stability Are Crucial for Fully Realizing the Vision We Share of a Europe that is Whole and Free

BY TEAM GT

Y

our visit is a strong message that the US supports Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at Tuesday’s meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

The Head of Government thanked the US Secretary of Defense for his visit and pointed out that it is another demonstration of the high-level relations between Georgia and the US, one that underlines the continuous interest and engagement of the United States of America in the Black Sea and South Caucasus region.

The Secretary of Defense thanked the Prime Minister for the warm welcome and added that his visit to Georgia bears witness to the close partnership between the US and Georgia.

"Thank you, Mister Prime Minister,” he said.

“This is my first visit to Georgia, and I am very grateful for the warm welcome that I have received thus far. And it has been a really good visit.

Continued on page 2

BUSINESS PAGE 9

Again with the Water: Etseri, Svaneti SOCIETY PAGE 10

The Magic of Pinocchio Brought to Life by the State Ballet CULTURE PAGE 11 CULTURE PAGE 11 Prepared for Georgia Today Business by

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2

NEWS

GEORGIA TODAY

OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

NY Times: Georgia Still First Worldwide in Terms of Virus Spread

BY ANA DUMBADZE

A

ccording to the NY Times, Georgia still ranks first in the world in terms of the spread of coronavirus.

Based on its data which was taken from Our World in Data statistics, there has been a 155% increase in coronavirus cases in Georgia during the past 14 days, with an average of 112 cases per 100,000 people, which is the highest number worldwide.

Georgia is followed by Latvia, Barbados, Serbia and the United Kingdom’s Isle of Man. According to the same data, since the beginning of the pandemic, every 6th person in Georgia has been infected with the coronavirus.

The COVID situation in Georgia is indeed very concerning. Head of the National Center for Disease Control, Amiran Gamkrelidze, confirmed this week that the “fifth wave” had started, and from a higher point than expected.

“Unfortunately, a rather difficult epidemic situation is developing. The number of daily cases has been exceeding 4000, which indicates that the infection is spreading quickly and easily. Unfortunately, the epidemic situation in the country is continuing to deteriorate,” Gamkrelidze said.

He noted that it is important to follow the recommendations – wearing a face mask and observing social distance. It is also considered vital to vaccinate as many citizens as possible, otherwise, the issue of tightening regulations may become a necessity.

“If we do not carry out the vaccination process, then it will be a difficult November and the country will have to impose restrictive measures again,” Gamkrelidze told media, adding that an increase in vaccinations could save up to 2000 lives before the New Year.

“We need to realize that vaccination protects us from infection, hospitalization and mortality. Every citizen should understand that we get vaccinated to protect ourselves, our families, our friends, and each other,” Gamkrelidze said.

However, despite a number of such calls, the vaccination rate in the country remains low, with up to maximum 5000 vaccinations per day. 32% of the adult population has been vaccinated so far, which is not enough, Gamkrelidze said, noting that the NCDC will prepare incentive measures next Tuesday for increasing vaccine uptake.

In contrast came a slightly more optimistic message from Minister of Health, Ekaterine Tikaradze.

She said that the vaccination marathon is ongoing in Kakheti, and noted that locals say the delay in the vaccination process was largely due to the harvest.

"It is important for the local self-government in each region to be actively involved in this process, because the central government alone will not be able to conduct this process effectively.

Of course, this does not mean that the central government is relieved of responsibility," Tikaradze said.

She also noted this is not only Georgia's problem. In countries like the United States, after reaching a certain threshold, they too face issues trying to convince citizens who are resistant to the vaccination process to get vaccinated.

"We, of course, share international practice and are gradually planning incentives and information campaigns that will be effective to encourage vaccination," she announced.

She agreed there is a decrease in the vaccination process, which she says was expected due to the fact that they have already reached 40% of the population.

"We have certain rankings, with Tbilisi, Adjara, and several Imereti municipalities leading. In other municipalities we do not have benchmarks as in Tbilisi

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photo by WHO/ Chris Black

and Adjara, where up to 70% are vaccinated with two doses," Tikaradze said.

She announced they will use all the tools they can to encourage the vaccination process, and there is an expectation that the situation in the country “will be much better in November.”

To date, 150 schools and 400 classes have switched to online learning due to the virus.

Given such a difficult epidemiological situation, health and government officials do not exclude imposing new tough restrictions, however, exactly what kind of restrictions will be imposed, or whether curfew will be reintroduced, is unknown at this stage.

“Since the Covid-19 projections are not reliable, the Coordination Council may have to make some tough decisions to prevent the spread of the virus,” the NCDC’s Gamkrelidze announced.

THE STATISTICS Georgia reported 5739 coronavirus cases, 2082 recoveries, and 36 deaths on Tuesday, as a result of 56,555 tests taken. Georgian capital Tbilisi recorded the highest

number of 1862 Covid-19 cases, followed by the Imereti region with 1151 cases, and the Kakheti region with 912 cases.

Georgia reported 5219 coronavirus cases, 2348 recoveries, and 42 deaths on Wednesday, with 57,301 tests conducted.

The testing revealed that Tbilisi again recorded the highest number of 1775 Covid-19 cases within 24 hours, followed by the Imereti and Kakheti regions, each with 907 cases.

On Thursday, 4411 new cases of coronavirus were registered in Georgia, 29 people died, and 2896 people recovered.

A total of 680,182 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Georgia since February 2020, of which 607,563 have recovered and 9370 have died.

Thursday’s cases saw 1456 cases confirmed in Tbilisi, in Adjara - 111, Imereti - 827, Kvemo Kartli - 293, Shida Kartli 347, Guria - 93, Samegrelo - Zemo Svaneti - 348, Kakheti - 696, Mtskheta-Mtianeti - 104, Samtskhe-Javakheti - 88 , RachaLechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti - 48.

1,895.771 people have been fully vaccinated in Georgia so far.

THE CASES WORLDWIDE One billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the WHO European Region. But risks for the unvaccinated leave no room for complacency, the WHO says.

In a statement Wednesday, WHO's Europe office said 1 billion coronavirus vaccines have now been administered across the continent, and described uneven vaccine uptake as “the region's biggest enemy in the fight against COVID19.”

The urgency to accelerate vaccinations is therefore crystal clear, the WHO says.

The vast majority of people who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 and require critical care have not received their full course of COVID-19 vaccine, it adds.

“COVID-19 vaccines have been developed to save lives, not to eliminate SARSCoV-2 and halt its transmission. Yet, the

more people who get vaccinated, the easier it is to bring transmission under control. Reaching 70% coverage everywhere is still our goal if we wish to stabilize the crisis,” the organization noted.

The World Health Organization noted there was a 7% rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week, the only region in the world where cases increased.

The two regions with the highest rates of COVID-19 incidence were Europe and the Americas. Globally, the US reported the biggest number of new cases, more than 580,000, which still represented a 11% decline.

Britain, Russia and Turkey accounted for the most cases in Europe.

“The biggest drop in COVID-19 cases were seen in Africa and the Western Pacific, where infections fell by about 18% and 16%, respectively. The number of deaths in Africa also declined by about a quarter, despite the dire shortage of vaccines on the continent,” reports ABC News.

But for the third consecutive week, coronavirus cases have jumped in Europe, with about 1.3 million new cases. More than half of countries in the region reported a rise in their COVID-19 numbers, WHO said. Britain and Russia each reported about a 15% increase in new cases.

In the past week, Russia has repeatedly broken new daily records for COVID-19 cases and the number of infections in the UK has surged to levels not seen since mid-July.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday backed a Cabinet proposal to keep Russian workers home for a week in an effort to stem the spread of the virus.

“Although the head of Britain's National Health Service has urged the government to introduce stricter COVID-19 protocols including mask-wearing and the faster vaccination of children, politicians have so far demurred,” reports the foreign media.

US Secretary of Defense: This Is an Important Region, and Its Security and Stability Are Crucial for Fully Realizing the Vision We Share of a Europe that is Whole and Free Continued from page 1 I’m glad to be here to underscore the close partnership between our two countries. It is a partnership that is based on common interests and shared values. As it has been demonstrated over the years through our shared sacrifices in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Georgia has consistently and steadfastly supported the United States in promoting peace and stability. I am very grateful for that close cooperation and for having an opportunity to reaffirm the US support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"One point I would like to be clear on is that the United States condemns Russia's ongoing occupation of Georgia and its attempts to expand influence over the Black Sea Region through various military and other activities. This is an important region, and its security and stability are crucial for fully realizing the vision that we share of a Europe that is whole and free, and at peace. Thank you again! The United States is committed to sustaining this strategic partnership. It is great to be here," Lloyd Austin said.

Irakli Garibashvili emphasized that the United States of America has a loyal regional ally in Georgia. The high level of bilateral cooperation in the areas of defense and security was singled out.

The parties underscored that the ongoing modernization of Georgia's Defense Forces is a result of joint US-Georgia efforts, while the memorandum signed between the defense authorities of Georgia and the US are of vital importance in that, given the complex security environment, it is important for Georgia to continue developing its territorial defense capabilities.

The meeting paid special attention to the regional situation and Russia's aggressive behavior. The US Secretary of Defense reassured the Prime Minister of Georgia of the US’ firm support for Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders.

PM Garibashvili also underscored the importance of restoring peace and trust in the region. In this context, the recent agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia-achieved through close cooperation with the US and the Georgian Prime Minister's mediation was highlighted as a factor facilitating dialogue

and improving the region's security environment. The PM introduced the US Secretary of Defense to the Peaceful Neighborhood Initiative for the South Caucasus initiated by him in order to secure peace and stability in the region, also drawing his attention to the special importance of US support in this process.

Georgia's considerable progress toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration was commended. The conversation also touched on the upcoming NATO Summit as a good opportunity to recognize Georgia's progress. The parties pointed out the decisive importance of US engage-

ment in reaching a consensus among the Allies. Special emphasis was placed on Georgia's contribution to ensuring international security and the country's formidable role in the process of evacuation from Afghanistan, something praised by the US Secretary of Defense as another demonstration of the strong strategic partnership between the two countries and their commitment to shared values, reported the Press Service of the Government Administration.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Georgia on October 18.

According to the Secretary of Defense, the United States is committed to help-

ing Georgia build its defense capacity and advance its Euro-Atlantic integration.

The visit to Georgia is part of the European tour. In addition to Georgia, he will visit two other Black Sea countries, Ukraine and Romania.

"My visit to Georgia serves to reaffirm and recognize the partnership. This is a critically important region for us. We have an interest, we share values, we see a number of opportunities to continue security cooperation. I am here to reassure you of the great value we place on our partnership,” Austin said.

Austin noted he has served in Iraq and Afghanistan and, with direct experience, can say Georgia has excellent military personnel. Austin added Georgia “really has every right to be proud of its contribution, it's military.” He said the United States and Georgia have common interests and the partnership will be further strengthened in the future.

"I want to thank the Minister, the Georgian Defense Forces, the Georgian people for their strong support for US and NATO efforts in Afghanistan. Personally, as a veteran of the Afghanistan war, I am especially grateful for everything you have done. Georgia has played a disproportionate role in this mission. Georgian troops served side by side with US troops and friends. They were building ties between our two countries that are beyond cultural and linguistic differences," Austin noted.

The US Secretary of Defense noted the huge sacrifices Georgia made. 32 people were killed and 293 people were wounded in Afghanistan. He expressed deep respect for the Georgian people, for all the soldiers who served, and for their families.

NEWS

GEORGIA TODAY OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

3

Georgian UNM Leader Melia Names 4 Candidates for Singer Refuses to Compete in Tbilisi Deputy Mayor Russian Vocal Show due to Ongoing Occupation Photo: Publika.ge

BY ANA DUMBADZE

BY ANA DUMBADZE

N

ika Melia, Chairman of the United National Movement and Tbilisi Mayoral candidate, nominated ‘Lelo for Georgia’ party leader Mamuka Khazaradze as a candidate for Deputy Mayor of the capital.

He made the announcement at the presentation of members of the coalition team of Tbilisi City Hall.

“He will fight for the welfare of our children and vulnerable people,” Melia said.

In addition to Mamuka Khazaradze, Melia nominated three other candidates for Deputy Mayor of Tbilisi – Zurab Japaridze, Elene Khoshtaria and Irakli Abesadze.

“Zurab has the most support among young people, who are our future and for whom we must do our best to make happy to live and work in Tbilisi,” Melia said.

Melia again stated that he will leave the post of Chairman of the “National Movement” if he wins the Tbilisi mayoral election.

“After my victory, I will no longer hold a high party position in the UNM and will be an ordinary member. As long as I am the mayor of the capital, I will not hold two positions at the same time,” he said.

Following the presentation, the third president

of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili said he fully supports the above composition of the cabinet. He released a statement from Rustavi Prison, where he has been on a hunger strike for 20 days now, since the day of his arrest.

“I fully support the diversity of the Tbilisi government and the coalition governance in the capital – to change the regime of the ‘Dream’ into a multi-party, diverse and effective government led

by Nika Melia,” he said.

The second round of local elections is scheduled for October 30, as the October 2 local self-government elections in 20 cities of Georgia did not reveal a winning candidate for mayor.

None of the candidates in these 20 cities was able to get more than 50% of the vote, including Tbilisi, where Kakha Kaladze and Nika Melia will face each other in the second round.

UNM and Georgian Dream candidates will face each other in 17 cities in the second round, Giorgi Gakharia’s candidate Besarion Bendeliani came second in Tsageri, and independent candidates Tamaz Mechiauri and Konstantine Sharashidze will face the Georgian Dream in Tianeti and Ozurgeti.

A second round of self-government elections will take place on October 30 in 20 cities: Tbilisi, Rustavi, Kutaisi, Poti, Batumi, Telavi, Tianeti, Kareli, Khashuri, Tsageri, Baghdati, Tskaltubo, Ozurgeti, Senaki, Martvili, Khobi, Zugdidi, Tsalenjikha, Chkhorotskhu, Khelvachauri.

G

eorgian singer Merab (Mebo) Nutsubidze has rejected an offer to participate in the Russian vocal talent show ‘Nu-ka, vse vmeste’ (All Together Now), citing the ongoing occupation of Georgian territories as a reason.

Nutsubidze claims that it is totally unacceptable for him to perform in a country that has occupied the two Georgian regions – Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (so-called South Ossetia).

As the singer recalls in a Facebook post, with screenshots from the conversation attached, he was contacted by the music show casting editor Zoia Shpakovskaia who offered him the chance to participate in the show on Russia’s 1TV channel.

“If you are not aware, I would like to kindly inform you that two regions of my country are occupied by the military forces of the Russian Federation,” Nutsubidze replied to the above offer. “I’m a Georgian, proud of my history and my culture and I don’t want to be part of the show that diminishes our values and our heritage.”

The music show’s casting editor replied that she

“respects his opinion.”

“Since when are facts called opinion?!” the singer commented.

“This is the third time they have contacted me from this terrible Russian show. Last year and the year before. They wrote to me again this year, and I’m already fed up.

“To me, it seems elementary that a person should understand in advance my negative answer, and should not even dare to write.

“Why should I perform in a country where my relatives were evicted from their homes and whose aggression has directly killed my family members with post-traumatic consequences? What should I have in common with those people who turn a blind eye to all this and call it “absurd?” Can’t we ever make them realize that we are not their doorkeepers, singers, or dancers?”

“However, unfortunately, we also give them basis for this insolence, with khachapuri and fun songs,” Nutsubidze wrote.

Russia’s initial recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (“South Ossetia”) occurred in the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. They are both recognized as independent by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria.

European Commission Rep: EU Assistance Must Be Accompanied by Clear Progress

Coming Soon

BY TEAM GT

L

awrence Meredith, Director for the Eastern Neighborhood and Institution Building at the European Commission, is visiting Georgia with a team from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a team from the European Investment Bank.

Meredith, together with EU Ambassador Carl Hartzell, will visit Imereti and Adjara to meet with beneficiaries of EU-funded projects.

He says during the visit the European Union will

launch various projects related to business and entrepreneurship support, environmental issues, and the provision of high-speed Internet in the villages. However, he added the EU investments and assistance must be accompanied by clear progress in various directions.

“Our investments must be accompanied by clear progress in judicial reform, public administration reform and human rights,” Lawrence Meredith said at a briefing held at the EU Office in Georgia.

He noted that the above are the core values of the European Union and the implementation of these reforms is essential for democracy and the economy in Georgia.

Continued on page 5

Say Hello To Ramada By Wyndham Old Tbilisi

4

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

The Mediterranean World at the Mercy of Geography ers were seen as good enough defensive barriers to rely on. The same can be said about the Middle East, where the Romans (barring some instances) did not think to permanently occupy the lands beyond the Euphrates River.

ANALYSIS BY EMIL AVDALIANI

C

ontinuing to discuss important geopolitical developments in the world with direct impact on Georgia, I wanted to have a look at the migration crisis in Europe. The crisis which followed the wars in Libya and Syria sparked debates in Europe on how to protect its southern borders and what could be done to resolve the Syrian and Libyan problems.

This comes at a time when in the last several years, Georgia has moved ever closer in its history to the European Union. I will try to explain below that Europe will continue facing large migration tides from the Mediterranean and that potential migration from Georgia will only be dwarfed by the former.

What we see now in the Mediterranean world is essentially what has been lost in the region for centuries due to different political and economic systems which existed in the Middle East and North Africa on the one hand and the European continent on the other. Perhaps one way to explain the current process of reconnection in the Mediterranean world is to revisit its geography.

A look at the map of the region shows that although the Mediterranean Sea borders three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa), it is essentially a closed sea with only minor outlets to the oceans, through the Gibraltar Strait and the Suez Canal. The Mediterranean is full of peninsulas and islands which give any power which controls them a chance to be a dominant maritime and economic power.

However, if we look further around the sea itself, one will notice that it is closed off from the heart of Africa, the rest of the Middle East, and Central and Northern Europe by powerful geographic barriers. In North Africa, it is the Saharan desert; in the Middle East it is the Syrian desert and the rugged land of the Anatolia along with the Euphrates River. In

CONNECTING TO THE MODERN EPOCH

Image source: Wikipedia

Europe, the Mediterranean is closed off by the powerful Alps, the Balkan mountainous territory and further afield the Rhine and the Danube rivers. As such, from a geographic perspective, North Africa belongs less to the rest of the African continent, there being barely any infrastructure or economic activity running through the Sahara, and is more influenced by the Mediterranean, most notably southern Europe.

The same applies to Syria which is cut from the rest of the Middle East by the desert stretching to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and the Arabian Peninsula.

The only connection Syria has to the rest of the region is through the north of Iraq.

Yes, modern technologies and the world’s increased interconnectedness makes the Apennine, Balkan, and Pyrenees less of a barrier, but these geographic features are still there and throughout centuries have shaped the

behavior of the Mediterranean peoples.

The geography also integrated the above territories of the three continents into one economic space. And there are plenty of instances of how this played out over the millennia in the Mediterranean.

Take the example of the Phoenicians, who established colonies in Northern Africa and modern Spain and controlled many islands in the Mediterranean. This enabled the Phoenicians to create a veritable trade empire where all the colonies and territories they possessed were more related to each other than to inland territories of the Middle East and North Africa.

The same was done by the Greeks with their colonization of the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. Connectivity through the sea facilitated the creation of a trade empire, with metropoles in mainland Greece getting the most out of it economically.

However, Phoenicians, Greeks and later

on Carthaginians did not have enough human resources to politically dominate the Mediterranean coastline. These seafaring peoples did not manage to shut off the Mediterranean from other rising powers.

And this brings us to the Romans. The Roman Empire was a perfect example of how the Mediterranean world was interconnected geographically. The Romans added to trade their military virtue and essentially closed off the sea to outside powers.

How geography dominated the Mediterranean world is explicitly shown in the extent of the conquest the Romans carried out. Roman legions did not go beyond the rich North African provinces deep into the heart of Africa, as the territories were not economically worth controlling. Caesar, August, Diocletian and other Roman leaders were also not particularly keen on capturing entire Germany, as the Rhine and Danube riv-

Thus, we see the Mediterranean world previously united. For the Phoenicians, Greeks and particularly the Romans, what was going on in North Africa and the Middle East was of major importance, as, economically and militarily, the lands were connected to one another.

The Arab conquests limited this connection. In the 7th c., North Africa and the Middle East came under Islam, while the rest of the Mediterranean remained Christian. Throughout the following centuries, economic and military developments in these regions varied, with cases (for instance, the Crusades) when clashes took place. Europe experienced industrialization in the 18th-19th cc., but the Middle East and North Africa lagged behind.

European colonization, followed by two devastating world wars, again increased the connectedness of the Mediterranean world. The Germans and Italians were in Africa, while the British were defending themselves in Egypt. In short, it mattered to Europeans what happened in North Africa. But, again, the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean world diminished and has yet to be reignited.

Thus, although we live in a highly connected world with modern technologies, at times trumping geography, geographic features still play a powerful role in shaping human behavior. What we now see in the Mediterranean world with the migrant crisis is what has been happening in the region for centuries with varying intensity. Today, it has again become clear that Italy, Spain and Greece, although participating in the grand European project, the European Union, are nevertheless now very much linked to what could happen in North Africa and the Middle East.

The Chaos of Democracy OP-ED BY NUGZAR B. RUHADZE

U

Pythagoras. Image source: Wikipedia/Szilas

nless my memory fails me, the words regarding the ‘chaos of democracy threatening Mankind’ are ascribed to one of the giants of ancient thought, Pythagoras. What I am sure about is that they are true even two and a half millennia after they were first pronounced.

A certain disapproval of democracy as one of the forms of Man’s sociopolitical existence has always been trendy among those who wanted to make the world a better place to live. Just delve into the internet (the most accessible source of knowledge and information today) and there we go, it is full of articles of various size and value about our beloved democracy: Why Socrates Hated Democracy?

Plato and the Disaster of Democracy, Why Democracy is Failing to Deliver Economic Growth, What’s Gone Wrong with Democracy? The Failure of Democracy, etc. – just hundreds of rebukes directed towards the most popular system of organizing human society! Why? Because there really is something chaotic about it, but as yet nothing more acceptable and happily practicable than what we usually call democracy has been invented.

Speaking about people and their role in the democratic process, there has always been a swirling question in my mind: how

could I, or anybody else like me, know in advance who the best person is to rule the country? The question is hilariously primitive, but it would be awfully valuable to have the answer to. The question indicates that most of the voters standing in front of that doubt-generating ballot box have not even the slightest clue whether the dude who succeeds in grabbing our vote will be the most optimal choice to represent us where the powers that be make decisions for all. Hence, Pythagoras has most probably bequeathed pure truth to us, the modern voters.

Democracy, as it is interpreted by most of humankind today, is about the so called vox populi, expressed in freedom of thought, liberty of decision, unbridling of behavior, a participatory way of life, grading of difference between male and female, crowds in the street, vociferous social protest, transparency of political efforts, and so on.

Having said that, let us now throw this little parenthetical introduction into the minefield of the Georgian political reality within which the chaotic arrangement of our democratic way of life is predicated in the clearest possible way. The hottest spot in the arena is definitely the apprehension of Georgia’s third president – the famous revolutionary, reformer and innovator, whose good deeds were superseded by his unfortunate misdeeds, redolently mixed with cruelty and paranoia of power.

The issue has totally consumed almost every other preelectoral controversy in

the country, as if the main national theme is this one and others have already been rectified so successfully that our felicitous existence has already arrived in Georgia.

An ex-president serving out a jail sentence is a heartbreaking story of course, but I am doubtful if this is what we should be killing ourselves over day in day out.

The lackadaisical reaction of the West and the country of his citizenship to the incident is one of the strongest corroborations of my thoughts. On the whole, doubts prevail while analyzing the anatomy of the event: Does the Ex deserve it? Is he a felon indeed? How fair is the confinement judgment of six years. Why six? Why not more or why not less? Who said that the verdict has been weighed to the utmost precision? I just wonder if the constitutional court of the country shouldn’t make the whole thing clearer so that the public on both sides of the watershed can be rid of their doubts and misgivings: the former president’s supporters would then not even utter a word about the reasons for his conviction, making a martyr out of a trivial wrongdoer, and his opponents would never mention even one good thing that the convict might have executed in his past of mixed doings. This is exactly why somebody (most probably, the constitutional court in this particular case) should come up with a fair and transparent lineup of pros and cons, describing the issue that might blow up to the extent of even furthering the extant chaos of democracy in the land.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

5

Russia or Die – Von Twickel on Russian Tactics and the Cost of its New Imperial Policy tion but also annexation, as happened in Crimea. It also was recognized as independent for a few days, only to be annexed later, because Russian law apparently stipulates that. Russia is just being pragmatic – when it’s in their interests, they use it. And when it’s not, they don’t, like in Donetsk and Luhansk.

SHOULD WE EXPECT THE KREMLIN TO TAKE SAME NEXT STEP IN GEORGIA’S OCCUPIED REGIONS AS WELL?

INTERVIEW BY VAZHA TAVBERIDZE FOR GISP

T

hirteen years since the Kremlin recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, enough time to analyze what the move cost both Georgia and Russia, as well as the self-proclaimed regimes.

What does the future hold for "independent" Sokhumi and Tskhinvali? GISP spoke to Nikolaus Von Twickel, editor of the Russland Verstehen ("Understand Russia") platform, and a researcher on Russia and the self-proclaimed regimes.

“There has been a growing consensus among the Kremlin watchers worldwide that Putin is not a strategist, he is tactician,” he tells us. “He does something today, and maybe he will change his plan tomorrow. This is exactly what we saw when the Kremlin went from not recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia for twenty years to recognizing them after the August War: it was a tactical, not a strategic move. And then they enhanced the policy in Ukraine, where we are already talking about not just recogni-

I think the most important aspect in this situation is to underline the differences between the Georgian and Ukrainian scenario: in Donetsk and Luhansk, they are bona fide puppet entities, very leeway, very little local agency amongst the so called separatists. Compared to that, Abkhazia is on a different planet altogether. There is a separatist elite that has been in charge since the 90s, more or less thirty years. They have had much more time to think about what they want, and they’ve always underlined that they want to be just Abkhazia, not Abkhazian Oblast or some such thing. They are fiercely pro-independence, and I don’t think that the annexation of Abkhazia is anything that is realistic for the Kremlin.

Whereas in South Ossetia, we have a vastly different scenario: there, the elite actively seeks annexation, or, as they would probably term it, “reunification with North Ossetia,” under the Russian Federation. Russia is well aware of this, but it is also aware that annexing more territories will bring yet more trouble to its door, including more sanctions. So they are very careful; they rebuffed the South Ossetians several times when they tried to approach them with this issue.

But if Russia does annex Donetsk and Luhansk, then I imagine people in Tskhinvali will be very upset for not managing to get in there themselves.

SPEAKING OF TROUBLES RUSSIA IS WARY OF - WHEN YOU LOOK AT UKRAINE AND SUBSEQUENT SANCTIONS, DID WHAT HAPPENED IN GEORGIA REALLY COST RUSSIA? WAS THERE REALLY MUCH OF A PRICE TO PAY? I think it is quite clear that Abkhazia and Ossetia were very cheap examples of this policy. Donbass uses many, many more resources, especially money. In terms of the Russian budget, the money the Kremlin has to pump into Abkhazia, South Ossetia and indeed, Transnistria, is nowhere close to what they are spending in Donetsk and Luhansk. And then there is Crimea too, also taking away a huge amount of money, probably even more than Donbass and Luhansk put together, so the whole Ukraine dimension has massively increased the cost of this new imperial policy, and compared to that, in financial terms, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are really dwarfs when compared to Ukraine.

ONE THING IS WHAT RUSSIA HAS TO DONATE TO KEEP THESE THINGS GOING, AND THEN THERE IS THE PRICE THE WEST HAS MADE IT PAY FOR ITS SHENANIGANS IN EASTERN UKRAINE. WHEN YOU COMPARE THAT TO THE WESTERN REACTION IN 2008, WELL, YOU CAN’T REALLY COMPARE THEM. “Yes. But because the situation in Georgia was so different: there was no open annexation for the first part, and secondly, the dimension of military aggression was different in that the debate about who started the war is ongoing to this day. In Ukraine, the situation is different: even though the Kremlin might think differently, most western policymakers

agree that there, Russia was acting aggressively right from the start, and that it needed to be punished. That is a much stronger, much more forceful argument than what was put forward in relation to Georgia in 2008. Further, in 2014, the nature of Russia was different already, because in 2008, we were still dealing with President Medvedev and there were lots of different approaches to Russia, hopes that it would become more liberal in the long term. This is no longer the case. The argument for tough sanctions is easier to make today, because everybody knows where they stand.”

Back to the recognition and annexation politics, we noted that Von Twickel had underlined how staunchly pro-independence Abkhazia is, but we pointed out that what we are seeing on the ground seems to be irreversible steps dictated from the Kremlin towards full integration, be it in the defense sector, in economy, finances and so on; so all-encompassing that it makes the whole independence thing a moot point. So, we asked him, once one is fully dependent on and controlled by an external actor, what independence can we be talking about? What's the logical closure of such developments?

“You're right,” he answered. “Although the level of dependence on Russia is much lower in Sokhumi than in eastern Ukraine, there is no arguing that without Russia's support, the situation there would be dramatically different. The thing is, Abkhazia has such a privileged geographical position that people to this day believe and dream that they one day will be a seafaring or trading nation trading with the world from Sokhumi Port.

But the last thirty years have shown that this is not a very viable option for Abkhazia. Then again, it's an interesting question to delve into more deeply: all the other regions, from Transnistria,

Russia is just being pragmatic – when it’s in their interests, they use it. And when it’s not, they don’t, like in Donetsk and Luhansk Donbass, to South Ossetia, have a situation that is completely clear. It's Russia or die. I mean, with no support from Russia, they will die off rather quickly.

Maybe some even don’t have any way of going back, as they have only Russia to support them. I think Abkhazia is the one example that differs, as [the Abkhazians] have this idea of having a viable piece of geography in the world where they can sustainably remain independent in the future.”

IN REALPOLITIK TERMS, IS THAT BE A VIABLE SCENARIO? I don't see it right now. I don't see the West getting into this because of the principle of it. I'm a realist. I don't think the West really cares so much about Georgia. And the NATO debate has shown that support for Georgia is limited. But I think recognizing Abkhazia is off the cards, simply because of the precedent it would set and because of the way it was achieved.

European Commission Rep: EU Assistance Must Be Accompanied by Clear Progress Continued from page 3 He added that the EU assistance is based on two pillars – investment and governance assistance.

“We believe that these reforms are necessary not only to advance Georgia’s democratic agenda, but also to ensure sustainable economic develop-

Photo source: EU in Georgia

ment, to create a level playing field and to attract investors,” Lawrence said.

As he noted, five different projects will be launched for Georgia within the framework of the visit. One of the projects aims to improve air quality.

“We see that there is no equal development between big cities and regions, sometimes it is five times, 10 times dif-

ferent. So, together with Ambassador Hartzell, we will go to Adjara through Imereti and visit the beneficiaries of the EU project to discuss our various projects. Georgia and the EU are stronger together, and our assistance will be beneficial to all citizens of Georgia,” Lawrence said.

In Imereti, they explored Georgian tradition with a fresh touch at Baia’s Wine run by a young woman entrepreneur who scaled-up production and started exporting to EU countries thanks to European support.

Then they traveled to Zeniti, a small village in Kobuleti which will soon benefit from high-speed internet connection, to learn about ongoing efforts and opportunities created for local citizens.

“We are working on extending high speed internet connections to 1,000 villages in Georgia together with EIB,” announced the EU officials.

At the end of the day, they met young people with hearing loss employed by Adjara Group thanks to a job fair organized through the EU’s Skills4Jobs program.

In Adjara, the EU officials honored

the memory of the victims of the Batumi tragedy.

An event entitled “Black Sea Connectivity Talks” took place, where the EU, EIB, EBRD and World Bank representatives discussed the future of the Black Sea, better transport connections, better internet connection, a cleaner environment and other important issues.

Keynote speakers included: Lawrence

Meredith, Carl Hartzell, Maciej Czura, EIB Regional Representative for the South Caucasus; Catarina Hansen, EBRD Regional Director for the Caucasus; and Sebastian Molineus, World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus. The panel was moderated

by Sandros Charalampopoulos, Advisory Board Member of the European Business Association (EBA).

6

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

The Future of Georgian Military Lethality

Georgian soldiers patrol rural Afghanistan where they took part as a partner in the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Source: Dead District/Twitter

BY MICHAEL GODWIN

T

he army in Georgia is a rightly celebrated and honorable organization that has stood in the defense of the oppressed. From combat on their own soil in 2008 to modern operations in Afghanistan and Central Africa, the Georgian Defense Forces (GDF) have conducted themselves well in the global security sector. Despite a miniscule size compared to other American or European partner militaries, its approximately 37,000 members carry a much heavier burden than many of their other counterparts.

With Azeri and Armenian forces consistently at each other’s throats and Russian forces routinely violating national sovereignty, the GDF is arguably the only force in the South Caucasus for peace, stability, and goodwill. This responsibility does not come without its requirements to be the most advanced and lethal military, capable of removing threats in a timely manner. For these reasons, the GDF must look at its future lethality and invest in its advancement.

The history of the martial skill of the Georgian or Kartli people is filled with exceptional stories of heroism, valor, and courage. Examples include the early Greek-influenced Cochian warriors, the

knights of the Bagrationi dynasty, the famous 300 Aragveli, the battalions of Georgians in the Soviet Army fighting Nazi Germany, and the soldiers struggling to preserve the nation in the 1990s.

The Georgian military spirit has, and still is, something to largely admire.

However, there still remains several proverbial chains holding the GDF back from becoming the regional power they must become. Conscription and the side effects surrounding it, the brigade and organizational systems, and the battlefield technology systems implemented are the three main points of concern. An examination and correction of these matters by the GDF stands to make the overall warfighting force the primary Eastern European based NATO force for good.

The institution of conscription and its place in the national defense framework is a solid weakness. This practice has been in place since 2017, after it was suspended by then Defense Minister Tinatin Khidasheli in 2016. While it had been said to be a far more reformed and enhanced version of the old system, multiple sources have described its training regimen as rudimentary and incomplete in terms or military relevance.

Indeed, many of those that serve in the conscript corps do little actual military combat exercises those that have served in professional Western armies would recognize. Serving primarily as an

unarmed security service at government buildings and installations, these young men are a federally organized version of private security guards; the proverbial “mall cop.” While many of them do their level best in their required line of work, their use as a combat-ready and operationally competent force for national defense is plainly nonsensical.

The removal of this program could draw some ire from those with a traditional view of military service. In many Eastern and former Soviet bloc regions, this practice is almost a part of the national culture. Barring university entry approval, professional athletic obligations, or other medical exceptions, every young boy leaves his childhood home to become a “man” through the rigors of military service in defense of his hearth and home. However, this aged view of service has been far surpassed by the post-modern nature of warfare.

It’s no question that the warfighter of tomorrow will be a far cry from that of yesteryear, and in fact even that of today.

Many of the West’s military recruitment models focus on not solely physical prowess, but also academic and educational aptitude. The need for junior soldiers to operate inside conflict zones using advanced technology, a high sense of cultural awareness, and an exceptional ability to adapt to new tools and techniques requires a far more extensive training and indoctrination regimen.

US Marines assigned to Georgian Liaison Team 9, and Georgian soldiers assigned to the 33rd Light Infantry Battalion, board a US Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey during Operation Northern Lion II July 3, 2013, in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Photo by Cpl. Alejandro Pena/United States Marine Corps

How these professional soldiers of tomorrow are organized significantly impacts the total warfighting efficacy of the larger units they are a part of. Allowing tactical and strategic command the tools of modularity with their units gives them an almost sliding scale of force response when deploying. Not dissimilar to the United States Army’s Brigade Combat Team (BCT) model, many Western militaries are shifting to this flexible, easily deployable, and self-sustaining template of force organization.

Currently, the GDF’s ground component, the Georgian Land Forces or GLF, maintains an outdated model of maneuver unit organization. Infantry brigades contain three infantry battalions, Artillery has its own artillery batteries, and so on, as each maneuver unit is homogeneous to its own branch type. Specialized units such as military police, special operations, combat engineers, and medical support units are organized separately. This type of organization is largely seen as ineffective to the advanced organization of tomorrow’s war.

By arranging the composition of the GLF units into something more effective, each maneuver unit gains a far greater ability to coordinate with supporting elements. This organization is often characterized by the United States Marine Corps’ Regimental Combat Team (RCT) or the aforementioned BCT configuration. By combining the infantry, artillery,

are adaptable to a fluid and rapidly changing socio-political and military environment. This is particularly useful when C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) may be limited or even not yet existent, and a form of ad hoc expedition force is required.

Each BCT/RCT, regardless of the format to which they center upon, have their own support units included in the BCT/RCT. This allows the necessary medical, communications, engineering, and other support units to become far more effective in their operations with their sister units within the BCT/RCT. In addition, when deploying abroad, particularly on NATO or UN missions, BCT/RCTs are able to organize rapidly and operate in a much more cohesive manner.

This combination of soldiers that are trained and prepared for tomorrow and a reorganized maneuver unit structure makes a force that is conducive to the needs of the next battlefield. The introduction of next-generation battlefield technology is the next step in maximizing the warfighting aptitude of the GDF. The implementation of C4ISR advanced platforms at all leadership levels within the BCT/RCT facilitates a truly healthy command and control environment. This must be seamlessly available at all leadership positions, from rifle squads and

An example of a United States Army Infantry BCT Modification Table of Organization (MTOE) reflecting the diversity of unit types in the IBCT. Source: CrucibleX/Wikipedia

armored, combat support, and combat service support elements into one maneuver unit capable of standing largely on its own, it becomes exceptionally more fluid.

In this model, each BCT/RCT arranges its composition of units around one of the three primary formats: light, medium, and heavy.

A light BCT/RCT places its focus on light infantry using smaller vehicles such as the iconic American-made “Humvee” or the Georgian Didgori-II, reconnaissance or commando elements, and manportable indirect fire units able to maneuver in terrain that would be ill advised for heavy armored vehicles. Sometimes referred to as an Infantry BCT (IBCT), these BCTs are ideal for deployment in remote areas where logistics and movement considerations restrict the application of large equipment. In addition, they are useful in counterinsurgency or peacekeeping operations due to their low military and political footprint.

Heavy BCT/RCTs are more armor centric, with an emphasis on the Georgian T-72 variants of the Main Battle Tank (MBT), self-propelled artillery, and mechanized anti-armor assets. The focus is on near-peer enemy combatants with like armament, or alternatively in assistance of a lighter infantry-based assault of an urban key terrain feature. While these BCT/RCTs are resource heavy, they are essential to the diversity of postmodern battlefield conditions.

The medium BCT/RCT naturally splits the difference by providing a combination of highly mobile infantry by way of Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) such as the new Georgian “Lazika” IFV, antiarmor support, and relevant indirect fire units including IFV-mounted mortar systems. As a flexible BCT/RCT, these allow commanders to deploy forces that

gun crews to battalion and BCT/RCT command staff.

However, this network of C4ISR also goes beyond the BCT/RCT. This connectivity capability makes multi-domain interoperability through a unified network a reality, even linking extra-brigade units such as air support assets, electronic and information warfare elements, and other BCT/RCTs able to share relevant data. Additionally, making this unified network global in all of the GDF and relevant national security elements allows forces to consolidate, deploy, unpack and reconnect to this network with unrestricted and secure access.

Ensuring the security and operability of such a network, while it would be a potentially decade-long process, puts Georgia on the cutting edge of region and even global security initiatives. The interoperability between the tactical, strategic, theater, and even global or NATO-wide command levels is the true future of C4ISR. For Georgia, with such a storied past of military excellence, these revolutions are instrumental in preparing the GDF for the next conflict. Georgia, while a small regional power, has the full capability to be a leading edge for NATO and the free world. It is true that these three aforementioned initiatives are not alone in the list of improvements for the GDF. However, they are among the core strategies that effect change at all other levels.

GDF lethality begins decades before the first shot is fired. With an eye to the future of post-modern security and stability operations, it is imperative that the relevant actions are taken now. These measures are aimed at ensuring that when that first shot is taken, it is on time and on target, with the complete military tactical, organizational, and network infrastructure behind it.

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

7

‘I am Glad that I am Free from all Corporate and Political Influences,’ Exclusive Interview with Giorgi Kalandarishvili merited such a positive evaluation. It was also an unprecedented historical event after the election to see such a large number of results counted across the country, and it was my initiative, on October 9, when I went out and publicly addressed all the District Election Commissions, to calculate the results according to certain criteria, and this also served the purpose of introducing an even more transparent component to the process, as well as to secure our reputation. Of course, there were some concerns regarding this issue, I would say more subjective than not, but most importantly, under this administration, under the new management, we ensured transparency in the pre-election period, on polling day, and post-elections.

HOW IS THE ADMINISTRATION PREPARING FOR THE SECOND ROUND?

INTERVIEW BY KETEVAN SKHIRTLADZE

G

iorgi Kalandarishvili was elected as the Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Georgia in 2021 for a term of 6 months.

He has a multifaceted education, and is a lawyer, as well as a specialist in information technologies and the English language. As Giorgi notes, he has passed a number of advanced training courses, both in Georgia and abroad.

Aged 37, he has been married for 6 years, and has a wife and two sons. He spends his free time with his children and does so with great pleasure.

GEORGIA TODAY went to meet Giorgi Kalandarishvili to talk about his plans, profession, and activities.

“My professional experience is mostly related to public service. I often joke that I am a public servant by origin,” he tells us. “Public activities are very close to my heart. My first steps in election administration are related to press and public relations. I was head of the press service for one year in 2008, then, a year later, since I was a lawyer, I was offered work in the legal direction and moved to the legal department. For 10 years I held the position of Head of the Legal Support Structural Unit, and I am very proud of that. Over the past 10 years, I have created many interesting projects with the team, one of which was related to the development and improvement of election legislation. Subsequently, I held the position of Head of the Human Resources Management Department. Soon, structural changes were implemented, within which one of the important directions, labor safety, was added. Following that, the electoral reform ensured that participation in competition became available to the general public.

“I participated in the competition for the position of CEC Chairman with the main motivation that I wanted to bring back to the organization the diverse electoral experience accumulated during my years,” he notes. “Naturally, I think the assessments of the October 2 elections by the OSCE, the European Parliament, the US and British embassies that the elections were well- admin-

istered are due to the changes and innovations the new administration has made, especially in the context of the epidemiological situation. I have been the Secretary of the Gender Equality Council since 2011 and the Chairman of the Council for the last year, however, due to lack of time, I decided to assign this position to another member of the Commission.

“I was actively involved in all activities of the election administration. It’s a bit awkward to talk about myself, but I am a very dedicated person, consequently, I have always worked intensively on my professional development,” Kalandarishvili tells us. “I have big plans and goals, both within the CEC and in terms of the development of the election administration, as well as in life in general. At this stage, the most important thing for me is to hold the second round [of the elections] according to high standards, and there are all the prerequisites for that.

We respond to all challenges with our actual work. A clear example of this is, in these two months, since my election to this position, the important measures that have been taken in the administration to increase transparency and promote an inclusive electoral environment.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR APPROVAL FOR THE POST OF CHAIRMAN. It was a very interesting process. I took it as a challenge to become the Chief Election Administrator, and I had all the qualifications for the post: the experience, knowledge, skills, and so on. The day the legal act of my election came into force, the elections were scheduled, the Central Election Commission switched to a 24-hour election regime, and imagine how hard it is to enter such a difficult and specific field when you don’t yet know all the nuances in the process, only good management and leadership. It’s not enough to run the election administration; it requires multifaceted and different directions and qualifications, knowledge of electoral law, activities of all structural units, knowledge of the specifics of the work of subordinate commissions, knowledge of these people with whom we have been doing this great work for 13-14 years, without whom the success of the project is not possible. I am glad that such

responsible and dedicated people work in the election administration, with whom doing state affairs is possible. I made the decision to lead them at the last minute and I am glad I’m able to do so free from all corporate or political influences.

From 2008 to the present, I have worked under various government administrations, and, obviously, I have always been independent in my activities. My twoand-a-half months of working as a CEC chairperson have been really impartial.

I always act within the legal framework, and to make decisions based on justice.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO LIVE BROADCAST CEC SESSIONS AND PROVIDE SUCH DETAILED INFORMATION TO VOTERS? From the day of my election, we have screened live coverage of CEC sessions through our social media page to ensure an increase in the transparency component. Any interested person can observe the activities of the CEC and what decisions we make. In this way, we have given the opportunity to the general public to

be more informed. When you give people the opportunity to see what is happening behind the doors, obviously, the transparency, trust, reputation, and credibility increase. When a person doesn’t know what is going on behind the doors, naturally, this raises some questions. We ensure the protection of voters from incorrect and false information which may lead to misunderstandings; we protect the election environment from harm.

We have established a contact hub where any interested person can contact us for any information and activities and receive information promptly.

HOW DO YOU ASSESS THE 2021 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS? I share the assessments of the OSCE ODIHR European Parliament, the United States, Britain, and other international organizations that observed the elections, as well as the assessments of local NGOs, which emphasized that these elections were well administered. If we look at last year's elections, we can say this was the first time our administration

We have already started the preparation.

We have identified the relevant needs; we offer voters remodeled booths in all districts; we have already started arranging cameras for installation in all polling stations so the counting process can be videotaped. In addition, at 31 polling stations in Krtsanisi, electronic voice counting devices will be piloted, also part of the novelty and preparation. We have already started to adjust the appropriate legal framework so that elections will be held on October 30 in accordance with high standards, and we are actively working with the media. Further, of course, we are carrying out all the sanitary and hygienic procedures that should be taken into account due to the epidemiologic situation.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS AS CEC CHAIRMAN? I have a broad vision of general administration development. It doesn’t matter if I’m still there or not [in future]; these plans are shared by the administration and the team. I see development in transparency in both the election and nonelection periods. It is necessary to train human resources in order to insure ourselves against certain human risks related to competence or technical issues. I also want to integrate technological innovations into the elections. For example, ID registrars. I have high hopes that in the next elections we will have the opportunity to pilot other such technologies.

This will simplify the process and address the issues of manipulation.

8

POLITICS

GEORGIA TODAY

OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

(Stereotypical) Perceptions vs Changeable Conditions: From Idealism to Realism. Part I

BY VIKTOR KIPIANI, CHAIRMAN, GEOCASE

W

hen evaluating current events developing around our country, here, we will rely upon only two voluntary limitations or “blockages”. By using these "blockages" while expressing realistic opinions and drawing conclusions, in this discussion we will maintain a necessary degree of moderation that current Georgian political thought is lacking in addition to a culture of speechmaking and of actually getting things done. By adopting these limitations, we will be able to avoid the scandalous and sensational tone of voice that is so characteristic of Georgian politicians and public opinion-makers and that is so frequently being poured by Georgian television into the private or business spaces of every single one of us.

NO USE FOR US One of these limitations would be a conscious rejection of the “we know everything” approach. Thus we will rid ourselves of the harmful and destructive line of thought that separates us from our well-wishers, benefactors and allies and pushes them to lose the desire to help us with their advice or action. As a result of the self-isolation caused by this “aggrandizing” of our own selves, we are basically facing the threat of gradually becoming a so-called “pariah state”.

Yet the condition of not believing in ourselves has practically the same selfisolating effect, for when we lose trust in our abilities we suppress our own centuries-old national potential, voluntarily distance ourselves from accomplishing the tasks required of statehood, and even abandon the realization of our destiny as a nation-state. Therefore, through our being tied and oppressed, we are gradually becoming incapable.

Our inertness and projection of indifference is ridding our well-wishers, benefactors and allies of the desire to cooperate with us, stripping them of the desire to entertain relations with us. As a result, the country becomes an uninteresting and useless quasi-subject for the rest of the world.

In a word, both extremes pledge us to one future: the country will lack purpose—on one hand due to an excessive (and groundless) ego, and on the other due to a lack of national identity and of the ambition that every country needs.

For Georgian society, however, it will not really matter which of these will nullify the country’s nation-state prospects as well as its potential for modernization and competitiveness and ability to embody civilized choices.

MORE THAN JUST AFGHANISTAN Many different factors—different in both essence and content—have an impact on the formation of a new global system.

I have discussed many of them in detail in my previous articles. Also, since these discussions we have witnessed the end of 20 years of war in Afghanistan with the participation of the Western coalition—an event which has forced the world to face a new reality. Based on already accumulated observations, it could be said that both the West and East have been forced to meet the conclusion of this war with similar levels of unpreparedness, and that this has even pushed both poles into the pincers of a “Post-Afghan” war for a long time.

The Afghan drama is very often compared to the conclusive accords of several post-Second World War conflicts. Certain similarities are obviously striking, but there are several differences as well.

Also, The Afghan case is distinguished not only by the military and political signs of the Afghan campaign itself, but also by the implications of the end of

this campaign for the global system. The unity of these signs and results places such a campaign precisely in its place, whereas the format of our article renders it inevitable to underline its many facets and nuances.

For the very beginning of this discussion, we will emphasize several so-called “static” components which will enable a more dynamic development of the topic.

The fact is that many observers have assessed what we referred to as the “Afghan Drama” as a clear fiasco of Biden’s foreign policy. The Biden administration has indeed also obviously contributed to the development of this process in the way we have all witnessed, but, objectively speaking, what also deserves special mention is the withdrawal of the West from Afghanistan as a joint result of the approach of several U.S. administrations, and this unity is referred to as “ineffective Afghan policies”. We will also add that, when discussing the ineffectiveness and inconsistencies of this policy, we do not limit ourselves to inner Afghan processes but also discuss the problem of the world's principal democracy not being able to align its relations with key regional actors. Moreover, against the mixed background of Afghanistan, the United States and other members of the coalition became trapped in the snare of double standards and became the victims of a hypocritical policy. Those states will have to take their bite out of the Afghan apple in future, so let us currently focus on our country's main supporter on the international stage.

Another noteworthy aspect is the U.S. abandoning Afghanistan as their main ally among non-NATO-member states (I have tried in vain to come up with a more delicate wording). Afghanistan has been using this status since 2012, and this has been the single case of the U.S. abandoning their "main ally”. This event was followed by many “far-fetched” evaluations, but as was already mentioned in the beginning of this article, we will try not to lose our moderation when making evaluations, and in those cases when moderate formulas will be difficult to find, we will limit ourselves to asking questions.

Another key aspect is whether the need has emerged to revise the status of “major non-NATO allies” of the United States among the non-NATO-member countries in order to define and enrich the meaning of this status? This becomes even more relevant when in Georgia (as in Ukraine) the model of better rapprochement with the United States in terms of self-defense is named as the “major nonNATO alliance”. And another, second aspect: how objectively resilient is this model, and how far does its quality fall behind the other more specific model

whereby the United States are bound by bilateral military obligations with their military partners in the defense sphere (e.g. with Japan and South Korea, and partially with the Philippines)?

This question, which has recently been asked more often, gives rise to a deeper topic: Is the Afghan Drama the beginning of the end of the “American System” (Pax Americana), of the main pillar of the post-Second World War order? I think it would be a mistake to share this opinion now, whereas later it would be what is called “a mistake greater than a crime”. When talking about “only a mistake”, I will add in short that the Afghan example presents us with numerous noteworthy lessons, but I would still avoid generalizing this case. Firstly, the line of history following the campaigns of the Second World War is sinusoidal, success giving way to failure and vice versa. Of course, Afghanistan’s given specificity remains unchanged, but we will add that those who are expecting a decline of the main wall of the West will have to remain mired in uncertainty and waiting for some time to come. Western civilization is, and will continue to be, the main determinant of the future global system (or lack of a system), but under one important condition: although exclusively benefiting from being “the only” one for the past decades, the West will have to share this power with the other poles of civilization. For the attention of those “waiting for the fall of the West”, I would also add that the probability of this occurring is so difficult to calculate and that its complexity is so vast that it requires an equally competent observation of all the socioeconomic and civic currents along with a careful monitoring of all the political, military and regional aspects. In a word, linking the “fall” of the West to the ending of its 20 years of war in Afghanistan following this irreversible event would be similar to the amateurish impatience of Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Márquez.

As for the “mistake” greater than a crime: in this case, we the Georgians are the addressees of this reasoning, especially since the events that took place in Afghanistan at the end of August were perceived with barely concealed joy by many in Georgia (and let us not start wondering why). This case requires Georgian society to adopt a much more responsible attitude than in the West. It is vital to remember (and to remind our fellow citizens as well) that, in this mixed and upside-down world, the mechanisms of Georgia’s international security mostly remain in the hands of the (understandably neither ideal nor faultless) geopolitical conglomerate. These mechanisms require care, and those who are holding them need our support and solidarity, both in form and in meaning, during

periods of crisis.

This theory brings us to a discussion of various dynamics, to which we will dedicate the rest of this article.

acute or unpleasant problems is a measure not only of conscious attitudes towards the working process but also towards the country’s deeds.

MISMATCHED PARALLELS (?)

(THE LACK OF?) WESTERN UNITY IN THE REGION

The development and conclusion of Afghan processes with the participation of the West immediately give rise to the question of the impregnability of America's obligations—the leader of the Western alliance—as the ally and partner of other countries. Although we have partially answered this question, I think that it requires more precision and that the example of our country can help us more in terms of practicality.

The lightest formulation of this question would be the following: with what quality and for how long will the United States seek to further Georgia's national interests in terms of security and defense?

(A rougher formulation of this same question would go beyond the analytical genre of this article and would be tactless.)

Let us begin with the fact that Georgia's cooperation with the United States and the West can be analyzed through essentially different historic and modern prisms, and that its political, social and cultural prerequisites are therefore fundamentally different. In a word, we are consciously part of the unity that we have formally been trying to join for the past few centuries—and actively for the past 30 years.

In short, the development of our nation and state goes through that frequency which is defined by pragmatic national interests as well as by the absence of other real alternatives needed to perceive this development. This is also due to the fact that pragmatic interests must be pursued through discussion and action, whereas perceptiveness requires the purposeful mobilization of our national potential.

Nothing can be achieved on its own and nobody will give anything away selflessly.

Besides all the above, we must also consider Georgia's political, economic and social formation and social structure, whose unique characteristics render them so radically different from others.

This circumstance is also an additional and reasoned answer to the prompt “indictment” of our main strategic partner by some parties.

Also, what must absolutely be underlined are those individual nuances whose voicing is considered to be “unfashionable” and to confront the already established (and sometimes sated with useless cliches) dominant narrative. Without a complete image and analysis of the complex current international landscape, not only will theoretical opinion decay but the process of creating political processes will also suffer, potentially causing irreparable damage to our national interests.

I therefore believe that discussing several

Thoughts and discussions of this topic have recently been quite frequent, whereas its source is linked to the transformation of the influence of Western politics globally as well as to the rearrangement of the accents of declared U.S. foreign policy priorities. There is a lot to talk about on the subject of this topic, certain aspects of which we have previously touched upon and which we will have to mention more than once in future. Currently, when discussing this problem, we will once again focus upon Georgia and our region.

I will start with the main political line of the White House's foreign policy— which is essentially a continuation of the Obama-Trump policies, whose main declared priority is domestic problems.

By now, these policies have been reflected in more than one specific legislative project or initiative, some of which have even been carried out. It would be sufficient to merely mention that, in guiding strategic foreign policy documents, the effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy is defined by the welfare of the average American—something we have often discussed. In doing so, the current administration is seeking to respond to the two main current global trends: intervention dictated by obvious American interests beyond the country's borders (and being selective in this regard), and economic nationalism. All this is of course nothing new, and there are many more examples among other countries, but this trend is very significant in the case of a global actor of such stature—one perceived to have been the main pillar of the international system that is now considered past, and as one of the main pillars of the new emergent system.

As a logical continuation of all the above, I will quote an extract from Biden's speech on the end of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan: “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

Equally noteworthy is his statement that the mission of the United States was “ensuring [American] security” and not "[Afghan] nation building” or “creating a centralized democracy” on Afghan soil.

These two theses are vitally important for planning Georgian politics and for the development of the Georgian nation and state, and their possible results must be rationally evaluated by both the country's politicians and society.

Continued in next week’s GT.

BUSINESS

GEORGIA TODAY OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

9

THE ISET ECONOMIST A BLOG ABOUT ECONOMICS AND THE SOUTH CAUCAUS

www.iset-pi.ge/blog

The ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI, www.iset-pi.ge) is an independent think-tank associated with the International School of Economics at TSU (ISET). Our blog carries economic analysis of current events and policies in Georgia and the South Caucasus region ranging from agriculture, to economic growth, energy, labor markets and the nexus of economics, culture and religion. Thought-provoking and fun to read, our blog posts are written by international faculty teaching at ISET and recent graduates representing the new generation of Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian economists.

ISET Economist | Desertification in Kakheti – a Threat to Kakhetian Agriculture?

BY MARIAM TSULUKIDZE, EREKLE SHUBITIDZE, GOGA SUKHASHVILI, JEMAL TSINTSABADZE, AND KHATIA TSAAVA

K

akhetiisoneGeorgianregion that is economically dependent on agriculture.

According to data from the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy 2021-2027, 40.1% of Georgia’s agricultural lands are within Kakheti, where its largest areas are arable lands, pastures, and vineyards, making it the leading region in the production of cereals, livestock, and wine. In 2020, wine production in Kakheti alone accounted for 75.5% of all the wine produced throughout the country.1 Unsurprisingly, Rtveli – a traditional vintage and rural harvest holiday, accompanied by feasts, musical events, and other celebrations – is closely associated with the region. While wine and related products remain some of Georgia’s most exported agricultural commodities, amounting to 10% of the total export in 2020.

Agriculture has long been listed by the National Communication Documents of Georgia to UNFCCC as among the sectors vulnerable to climate change, and Kakheti has been identified as especially susceptible to the risk of desertification. Since desertification would have tangible negative effect on the Kakhetian agricultural sector and its economic activity, it is important to have a closer look at the current and future trends of weather patterns in the region.

The risk of desertification is typically discerned by rising temperatures and declining precipitation rates. The Fourth National Communication of Georgia reveals that increased average temperatures have already been observed – in every season – in Kakheti (+0.310C in the spring, +0.940C in summer, +0.600C in autumn, and +0.300C in winter). Furthermore, as can be seen in Table 1, temperature increases are predicted to continue into the future, right until the end of the century.

As one can gauge from Table 2, precipitation patterns are also concerning.

Image source: GreenGrowthCaucasus

included in the Fourth National Communication indicate that this negative trend is expected to continue to a greater degree in the future.3 Finally, during spring and early autumn the number of dry days in Kakheti has also been increasing. The annual and spring increase was 6-9 days and 4-5 days, respectively, compared to the 1990s (MEPA, 2021). Thus, Kakheti suffers with a lack of precipitation even during the vegetative period (April-September).

Consequently, it becomes important to question why these trends are alarming. It is notable that they indicate a heightened risk of drought affecting the region. The negative impact of droughts may subsequently fall on agricultural harvests, water and food deficits, and dust storms in desert and eroded areas.

According to the Georgian Farmers’ Association representative,6 the Fourth National Communication Document, and the Kakheti Regional Development Strategy 2014-2021, the risk of desertification is fairly severe in the municipalities of Dedoplistskaro and Akhmeta.7 On the ground, because of rising temperatures and decreased Table 1. Maximum monthly temperatures in 2015 and levels of precipitation, estimated maximum and minimum temperatures for 2050, those landowners that 2070, and 21002 years ago never established irrigation systems are now considering such installations.

Various steps have been taken, over time, to mitigate the effect of climate change on agricultural products. A good example is the gradual implementation of the activities defined in the Second National Action Program to ComSource: Fourth National Communication of bat Desertification. This Georgia to UNFCCC program includes awareness raising about the The annual amount of precipitation in problem and an evaluation of the comKakheti declined by 1.5% yearly from ponents of agrobiodiversity, such as the period of 1986-2015 compared to genetic resources of plants and animals, 1956-1985; significantly decreasing in pest management, and nutrient cycles. summer, and slightly increasing in the Additional proactive measures have also other seasons. Additionally, forecasts been taken by private entities, for instance

the installation of drip irrigation to reduce the risk of land degradation;8 some of which were supported by governmental programs, such as “Plant the Future”.

Nevertheless, the scale of these existing interventions still appears to fall short of the requirements, both in Kakheti and in the rest of the country.

Researchers generally agree about the importance of promoting a “culture of prevention”, one which would encourage the conservation of drylands and alternative livelihoods (Adeel, Safriel, Niemeijer, & White, 2005, p. 14). These can be effectively achieved through largescale investments into climate change resilient technologies in the agricultural sector. Despite the costs, the prevention of desertification is far easier and less costly than the rehabilitation of desert lands. Moving towards this, however, requires both management and policies that would encourage the use of sustainable resources.

There are several actions that could increase the resilience of Kakhetian agriculture to climate change (desertification in particular): Firstly, increasing investments towards irrigation systems. Specifically, according to the stakeholders’ consulted, the construction of a reservoir could partially solve the problem; by accumulating water

from the Alazani River during winter when the resources are not being used, for later use in the summer. Yet this would necessitate efficient planning: one should, for instance, devote attention to investments in water tracking to measure accurately water flows, quality, storage, and uses. Adopting new technologies, such as automated gaging and remote sensing, could also prove a helpful way to monitor and predict the flow of water, and therefore to allocate water appropriately during vegetative periods.

Secondly, setting windbreaks and growing plants with strong root systems would help ensure soil retention and restore forest cover.

Finally, it is pertinent to plant and disseminate climate resilient crops and species, those which can be effectively grown in less preferrable conditions and which require less water for survival.

In summary, since temperature increases and reduced precipitation levels each represent an increasingly likely future for Kakheti, and moreover constitute a threat to its agricultural sector, it is advisable that the steps included in National Action Program to Combat Desertification proceed at an accelerated pace. Among these, certain preventive activities should be promoted to the highest priority since they potentially

provide less costly and more beneficial solutions. https://www.geostat.ge/media/38834/ soflis_meurneoba_2020.pdf 2 Monthly temperature values were recorded at stations (Dedoplistskaro, in the Kakheti region) in June, July, and August 2015, with the maximum and minimum predicted values for the same stations in 2050, 2070, and 2100.

3 Kvareli is an exception with 700 mm of atmospheric precipitation.

4 As expressed in millimeters (mm) of height or depth of precipitation.

5 The table shows the average precipitation rates recorded at stations (Dedoplistskaro, in the Kakheti region) in June, July, and August 2015, and the change in precipitation predicted/estimated by means of comparing meteorological data for 2041-2070 (the first forecast period) and 2071-2100 (the second forecast period) with the respective factual baseline data for the same stations from 19712000.

6 The consultation was conducted with the deputy chairman of the Georgian Farmers’ Association.

7 Kakheti Regional Development Strategy 2014-2021.

8 There are a number of screening reports describing the installation process of such systems on the official Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture website.

1

Table 2. Precipitation (Pr.)4 and its changes in Kakheti, 1986-2015 (compared to 1956-1985), and in 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 (compared to 1971-2000)5

Source: Fourth National Communication of Georgia to UNFCCC

10

SOCIETY

GEORGIA TODAY

OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

Again with the Water: Etseri, Svaneti BLOG BY TONY HANMER

I

’m continuing my amateur investigation into what makes Etseri’s most precious resource run, or not.

There are the two rivers which run through, one close enough to our house to give permanent “white noise” in the background, the other about 200m away from us. These, while delicious trout live in them, are also the outlets for at least five houses’ black water, that is, all the water from sinks, showers, washing machines and toilets. Then there is the spring which actually feeds all our water pipes, about 5km above the village.

This morning, after my wife took her shower, the water slowed to a trickle.

Yet again. This time, although there were no guests staying, our workmen were building the café’s cement block parts, needing (of course) cement to join them.

Powder, sand… and water.

I called the mayor of the village, irate, and told him the situation. He asked me to find out if the neighbors’ water was also off, which it was indeed; and then to go with one of them, which I had been waiting to do, and see where the blockage was, most likely caused by leaves in this season of fall.

We set off together; I was expecting a long trek to the spring itself, but there is a much closer point where trouble can come, and we checked that out first.

Here, several 40mm pipes feed off the main, larger pipe, and serve the various hamlets, including ours. There is also a

large concrete well-shaped structure through which the main pipe runs, with a shutoff valve to turn. This we had to close in order for my neighbor to detach and look at our pipe.

Sure enough, leaves were causing the blockage; he had a piece of wire handy to fish these out, then he closed everything up again, reopened the main valve, and we waited a few more minutes to see if everything was settled.

He called his wife, and she told him that yes, the flow was back to normal.

So far so good.

My main question at this point is: what needs to be changed to prevent falling leaves from getting into the water pipes and causing this blockage? No, they won’t be a problem in winter, only now; but the erratic flow is enough of a problem at any time, especially when one has water supposedly running inside the house, guests, bathrooms, a washing machine, showers, and so on.

And an observation: I have now seen firsthand what the possibilities are for anyone to go to this local water point and play with it. Turn things up or down, or simply detach something altogether.

Now, I would rather err on the side of thinking good thoughts about my neighbors, not suspicious ones. However, I have also experienced firsthand the animosity which comes when they are jealous of others’ success in business; the threats and antipathy, the occasional petty theft when I’ve left something outside overnight, and so on. So, I don’t know.

It’s one thing to reduce the flow of water when that causes only frustration.

But I have also experienced what hap-

pens when this is done upstream from us mid-winter, at -18 degrees C or so.

Our pipes simply freeze. Mostly, this can be rectified and the flow restored, but not always or everywhere. The result: water right up TO, but not INTO, our house. We can fill a 250L container we have in our bathroom, and use its water everywhere. But we don’t have actual running water, which is the goal. Pour-

over showers; toilet flushes by bucket; running the washing machine by bucket too.

So I hope to see the leaf issue addressed, and then the easy accessibility one, when the promised commission arrives to look specifically at water this week. Intrigued by what will be said, and done. As always at the moment, #mishavs means: “It matters to me”!

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/ groups/SvanetiRenaissance/ He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

CULTURE

Tbilisi Contemporary Ballet Brings Sisterhood in the Center of a Soviet Prison with the Immersive Performance “12 Visits”

BY LORRAINE VANEY

I

t was a matter of time before Tbilisi expanded the borders of its cultural offer to the urban periphery. Located in the heart of the Ortachala District, in the leftovers of a former Soviet prison, Alternative Art Space N°12 is an uncanny cultural space with a dark history. The creative potential of the place suggests a promising canvas for art directors to produce and showcase their creations in a different way, eventually exploring new territories and artistic interplay.

Mariam Aleksidze, acclaimed choreographer of the Giorgi Aleksidze Contemporary Ballet marks the opening of this new cultural space with her multimedia ballet “12 visits”, written and directed by David Maziashvili. Earlier this summer, the creation won the grant of the Ministry of Culture for ballet productions. Tbilisi City Hall, close partner of the Giorgi Aleksidze Contemporary Ballet since 2016, has also supported the

production.

The piece is a prime example of a sitespecific collaboration between video art, contemporary dance and electronic music. The multimedia ballet offers several layers for the audience to dive into.

Heads are turning left and right, finding

the right angle to grasp the texture and the narration of this immersive performance.

The introduction of the piece was sharp, almost violent, with sound recordings of metal, steps, and rasping doors combined with a claustrophobic track shot of the inmate’s entry to the corridors of the prison. The tone is set: the performance will be intense and obscure. Black ink swallows this quick glimpse into the prison’s reality, as the electronic pulse of the music, written by Natalie Beridze and Nika Machaidze, wrapped the prison in a boundless soundscape. It feels as if time is bending, losing its linearity to plunge the audience in a suspended experience.

The dancers enter the muddy stage of the courtyard, marching, running, shaking, in long brown trench coats, giving the impression of a feisty women-led resistance movement. For the next hour, 12 women from different ages dance their pain, with strength and grace, in front of the prison’s wall standing between them and their male relative.

The choreography seems to draw on the collective spirit of sisterhood in shared struggles. Picking on asymmetry,

shakes and rotation, the bodies search for the missing touch of their loved one, locked behind bars, and for the emotional support of their peers. It takes the audience into a story of resilient women, forcing admiration and empathy for the characters.

In an interlude, the video maps the inside of the cells, covered with pictures and words. The male inmate, stuck in the static time of his apparently endless sentence, appears as a faraway silhouette, dancing his needs for space, movement and air. The choice of a pink leotard and a white mask brings an element of surprise. Traditional gender roles are shifted: strength and power are held by the female dancers while the inmate embraces

delicacy and vulnerability. It is a refreshing take on dance in Georgia, where traditional dance stands as a conservative flagship for gender normativity.

In its final act, the choreography multiplies perspectives on the narration, highlighting the individuality of each dancer, as they break in trio and duo. In the final solo, one isolated dancer turns ecstatically in her white dress, bringing a subtle ray of light into the stage but leaving the audience unsure as to whether this is a sign of hope, or of delusion.

This final delicate and ambiguous note closes this strong contemporary performance, which set the bar high for the next events to be held in a cultural space so charged with emotions and traumas.

CULTURE

GEORGIA TODAY OCTOBER 22 - 28, 2021

11

The Magic of Pinocchio Brought to Life by the State Ballet

BY KATIE RUTH DAVIES

H

aving been ashamedly lax in my attendance of the Tbilisi Ballet of late, largely due to pandemic concerns, I decided to dive back in and drag my kids from their beloved screens to enjoy the fun and cultural experience of Pinocchio.

The Opera House, following guidelines, had us spaced out on alternating seats.

Another big change saw the front half of the auditorium hosting the string section of the Theater Orchestra in place of the front row seats, while the wind and percussion were in their customary place below the stage. Although a tragedy in terms of necessarily lost ticket sales, the fact of having the orchestra, and conductor Revaz Takidze, so close to us, and the instruments almost within arms’ reach, gave us a much more intimate experience overall, and it gave me a prime opportunity to give my kids some fun facts about the instruments prior to the show. Then the curtain lifted and the orchestra put us promptly on the rollercoaster of emotion and drama that comes with the ebb and flow of Ottorino Respighi’s score.

First on stage was a clearly poor and lonely Geppetto (Andrii Havryliuk), who was gifted a log to carve by the townsfolk. Back home, in front of a fire, Pinocchio soon emerged to demand to be able to go to school with the other children.

Left alone while Geppetto went to buy him clothes, Pinocchio (played by Papuna Kapanadze) began to delight us with his antics as he discovered his limbs, and then burnt his feet in the fire! We were quickly to discover his naughty streak, with school books sold in temptation of a trip to the puppet theater, at the invitation of Fox (Diego Buttiglione) and Cat (Ruika Yokoyama), and despite severe warnings from the good conscience of Cricket (Nutsa Chekurashvili).

At this point, my three were delighted to see Pinocchio join us in the audience and take a seat nearby to watch the incredible dance of the puppets. The scene left me in true awe- each of the dancers had strings attached and running to the rafters, and yet their carefully choreographed moves led to not a single tangle!

I had spoken to costume designer Jerome Kaplan, first time in Georgia, and choreographer Par Isberg before the show. I asked Jerome what his inspiration had been for the dancers’ clothing.

“The inspiration for the costumes came from Italy at the end of the 19th century, and, considering Respighi was being used, I thought it was important to keep the costumes close to the Italian influence and music,” he told me. “I did what

I always do to prepare for design- I collected various illustrations of Pinocchio to try to find the alphabet of the ballet.

I select what I like and summarize what is the best, the most beautiful and most interesting. Because the focus is Italian, I decided not to use any influences from the Georgian style, but, normally, I would look for the mood, color and shape of the country in which I am in and apply it to the project I’m working on. I will be back to Georgia in future, though. So let’s see.”

I then asked Par Isberg how he had managed to find balance in bringing a children’s tale to the stage for a mixed audience of adults and young.

“I’ve done a lot of family productions, and I don’t believe you have to go down to a childish level to convey a children’s story. As children, we always look for more than just the magic, and that feeling is what I wanted to recreate. That said, every artist needs a sense of freedom and to be able to play with their inner child. This is my first time working with the Tbilisi dancers, but dance is an international language, so other than the pandemic restrictions, there were no specific challenges here, and I’m happy with the results.”

And he had every right to be. On returning from the intermission, having seen Pinocchio head off to explore yet another tempting offer from Fox and Cat (leaving Ms Cricket shaking her head in despair), the children in the audience were enlivened by a scene of school children and Pinocchio gorging themselves on giant candies. Enormous striped lollipops were thrown and danced around hither and tither as wide eyes watched and stomachs rumbled (I already knew I’d be stopping at the candy shop on the way home that night!); then more candies floated down onto the stage, met by gasps and parents being asked, “Can I go and get one?”

“Mummy, their tummies are getting bigger!” my 7-year-old then whispered in my ear as several dancers’ belts popped open. And indeed they were. While the dancers were as nimble as ever in their leaps and bounds, their girth was definitely growing. And at last the dancers came to rest, and awoke the next morning, as those who know the tale well can predict- as donkeys!

Another exciting scene began with ribbons opened by dancers to represent a circus tent, under which acrobats rolled and tumbled, and Pinocchio-the-donkey was whipped into submission to perform.

On hurting his leg, he was left to the care of Cricket and the spectacular and delicate Blue Fairy (Ekaterine Surmava). At this point, with no words spoken and only dance to convey, we saw Pinocchio’s naughtiness get the better of him, and his incredible nose began to grow. Only with repentance and the help of the Blue

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Fairy was he able to return to health and go on a search for Geppetto…and this led to another “wow” from the set designers (led by Bo-Ruben Hedwell): lengths of blue tulle and silk took us to the sea, dancers representing waves whirled around and crashed against poor Pinocchio as he swam. Pinocchio sank and we were taken down with him into a magical, colorful world of jellyfish, clams, and tropical fish, with turtles and starfish played by the youngest members of the State Ballet Company. Back on the surface, a giant fish arose from those waves, his mouth open, teeth bared. And in his mouth was Geppetto. With father and son reunited and Pinocchio truly sorry for his wrongs, the Blue Fairy granted him the right to live as a real boy.

My kids were happy; my eldest reinspired to take up ballet again, my son exclaiming at the big lollipops and the giant fish; my middle daughter wowed by how high the ballet dancers had jumped. Pinocchio, as performed by the Tbilisi State Ballet, had achieved its goal to entertain equally both the youngest and oldest in the audience, bringing alive a childhood tale and waking us up from a too-long slumber without the delights of the State Ballet of Georgia. And I’m not the only one to think so.

“On behalf of Friends of the Georgian Ballet, I would like to express our gratitude to Nina Ananiashvili [Director of the Ballet Company], and the dancers, who are so talented and work so hard to give us these incredible performances, which are often like little pieces of Europe,” said Friends of the Georgian Ballet Board Member Gilles Carasso following the premiere. “That gratitude is deeper this year. The pandemic, while difficult for all of us, was a catastrophe for the performing arts and artists- everything stopped.

No performances, no money coming in, no chance to work. But they never gave up. When they couldn’t perform in the theater, they danced Don Quixote for us in the car park. And it was incredible.

Once back in their premises, they began moving step by step forwards, and I was again amazed. And when you think of the conditions in which Pinocchio was prepared- masks, distancing, etc., the set design and music, all together it was an incredible success,” he said.

The Friends of the Georgian Ballet is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2006. It aims to support the initiatives of the State Ballet of Georgia under the artistic directorship of prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili, and so facilitate the process of development of the Georgian ballet.

The membership fee of FGB serves to provide funding for scholarships for promising young ballet students at the V. Chabukiani Choreographic School, and participation by specially selected members of the Ballet Company in prestigious ballet competitions and master classes held around the world.

Since 2007, the FGB and the Prima Ballerina have awarded annual scholarships to selected students of the Ballet School based on talent and/or social need, while also supporting the participation of students and company dancers in international competitions and masterclasses.

New members are always welcome.

The world premiere of Pinocchio took place in Hong Kong in 2015.

Journalists: Ana Dumbadze, Vazha Tavberidze, Tony Hanmer, Emil Avdaliani, Nugzar B. Ruhadze, Michael Godwin, Ketevan Skhirtladze Photographer: Aleksei Serov

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