The Georgian PEN Centre have written to Mikheil Saakashvili asking him not to evict Caucasian House from its premises in Tbilisi.

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Dear Friends,

As you know, recently the Georgian Government has started a campaign to evict the Oldest Georgian Peace Building Organization "Caucasian House" from its office. We are asking the international peace community to join us in defending Caucasian House from being eliminated.
Here is the history of Caucasian House:

http://www.caucasianhouse.ge/content.php?id=24&lang=eng

This organization is headed by the well known writer, Naira Gelashvili. She has published more than 20 books and headed many peace building initiatives.

The Caucasian House is one of the few organizations in Georgia that is doing multi-cultural education and peace education. This is the list of curent projects:

http://www.caucasianhouse.ge/content.php?id=38&lang=eng

You can contact Caucasian House at this address righ now:

Union "The Centre for Cultural Relations - Caucasian House"
Address: Galaktioni str., 20; 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel: 995 32 936293; 995 32 988339
Tel/Fax: 995 32 997261
E-mail: caucasianh@hotmail.com

We are asking our international friends to sign our joint letter to the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Below is the text of the letter.

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Dear Mr. President,

We are extremely concerned about the decision of the Georgian Government to give the building housing the oldest Peace Building organization in Georgia "Caucasian House", that was built in 1998-2000 by the European Foundation "Horizon", to other organizations.
Caucasian House in Tbilisi is the center for intercultural dialogue. This is a place where everything is done to bring peace and conflict resolution in the Caucasus. Cultural, artistic and scientific tools are used to facilitate a dialogue between different Caucasian nations. The Caucasian House is the main non-governmental organization that is dedicated to peace in Southern Caucasus. Its chairwoman, Dr. Naira Gelashvili is a well known writer and activist who has 20 years experience in leading the peace building processes. Caucasian House has raised generations of children and young people in the spirit of peace and collaboration.
Mr. President we would like to ask you not to eliminate and evict "Caucasian House" from its building. This will cause its projects to stop.
We shall preserve the place that was a center of Georgian civic education for peace and cooperation.

Irakli Kakabadze
Davit Kartvelishvili

Georgian PEN Center

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Please join us in defeding Caucasian House.
 

Commenting on the Guardian website at the weekend, the former UK Minister for Europe, Denis MacShane MP, called on the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron to “not let down Georgia”. MacShane is quite right that Georgia needs support from the international community to help it rebuild following the conflict with Russia in 2008. However, what he fails to acknowledge is that the person who must take the responsibility for “letting Georgia down” is Mikheil Saakashvili.

MacShane presents an idealistic view of Georgia, and it is clear that he has been taken in by the propaganda produced by the country’s government  in recent years. Under Saakshvili the progress of democratic reform has been slow and littered with setbacks, rather than the praise that MacShane suggests has come from the international community, financial institutions and NGOs.

In June this year Freedom House confirmed their view that Georgia made no overall progress towards democracy in 2009, lagging behind the post-communist average. The report rates Georgia's electoral processes in 2009 as no better than in 2003 - when electoral fraud led to the ouster of veteran Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze. The report added that since the Rose Revolution Georgia's only real improvements have been in corruption and, more marginally, the strength of civil society. In other key categories, such as media freedom and judicial independence the trend has been negative. A detailed report produced by Transparency International, appears to confirm this, stating that:

“Of the reforms that have so far been implemented, many are not of a lasting or systemic character.”

One only has to look to the recent mayoral elections in Tblisi to see that there is much progress still to be made before Georgia becomes a strong democratic nation. In his article MacShane incorrectly labels the mayoral elections “a success”, Europe’s election watchdogs have stated that this was not the case. The OSCE-led International Election Observation Mission (IEOM) said in a report that “significant shortcomings” remained in the electoral process, citing deficiencies in the legal framework, its implementation, an uneven playing field, and isolated cases of Election Day fraud.

The lack of independence in the media further detracted from the legitimacy of the mayoral elections. As stated by European Dialogue, the lack of transparency in the Georgian media, particularly television stations, ensures that the country falls short of European election standards. European Dialogue commented that:

“The Georgian public still do not know who controls and finances the country’s two main TV channels, Rustavi2 and Imedi. One can realistically assume that the Georgian Government is financially backing these and other sources of “information”.”

Mr MacShane was an engaging and influential Minister for Europe, but seems recently to have become something of an apologist for the Georgian government, praising the Deputy Prime Minister, Giorgi Baramidze at a an event in London, and writing this sycophantic article in June. As a member of the Council of Europe, he would be better to spend his time giving a balanced view of events in Georgia, and seeking to hold President Saakashvili to his promises. 

The Centre for Cultural Relationships NGO has been disbanded by the Ministry of Culture and evicted from its premises at Caucasian House. The move follows increased efforts by the ministry to promote the Smirnoff Museum which is also based at the same property. In a letter, members of the PEN Centre Georgia, have called on the international community to intervene and for writers in Georgia to stop cooperating with the ministry. The full text of the letter is below:

The Center for Cultural Relationships "Caucasian House" has united writers, translators and civil society leaders of different ethnic origins and nationalities. This non-governmental organisation has conducted many cultural, educational and peace building programs not just in Georgia, but around the whole Caucasus. It is also active in the movement for environmental protection, and the cultural and socio-economic rights of disenfranchised citizens of Caucasian countries. It has dedicated special attention to the question of minority rights and cultural integration of Caucasian peoples.

• Caucasian House publishes the literary-philosophical magazine "AFRA'
• Caucasian House has published Russian language magazine "Kavkazski Aktsent" that is distributed throughout the Caucasus
• Caucasian House publishes the magazine "Village" to promote sustainable development in the Caucasus
• Caucasian House has published literature on Georgian, Russian, European and Caucasian languages
• Caucasian House is responsible for translating many works of world literature into Caucasian languages
• Caucasian House has translated many works of Georgian writers into world languages

These were the reasons that Caucasian House was considered the "Alternative House for Writers" who were oppressed by the regime. This is why Georgian PEN Center found its home in Caucasian House. But after this the Ministry of Culture decided to disband this unique organisation, evict it from its home and promote the “Smirnoff Museum" in its place.

We do consider this as an act of persecution of Georgian Writers. This act is aimed against freedom of expression, and our struggle for peace and social justice in Georgia. This is further evidence that free expression is persecuted in Georgia.

We ask the international community to intervene and specifically we ask for help with the PEN Center Georgia. We also ask all Georgian writers to stop cooperating with the Ministry of Culture, until the government ceases to undermine free speech and evict the Center for Cultural Relationships.

Unfortunately, everyone knows today that the Georgian regime is not able to tolerate different opinions and all citizens who disagree with the government's position are punished severely: whether they are protesters, artists or scientists.

This practice needs to stop.

The letter has been signed by prominent members of the PEN Centre Georgia:

*David Magradze (President), Shorena Shaverdashvili (Vice-President), Davit Kartvelishvili (Vice-President), Rati Amaghlobeli (Vice-President), Keti Kighuradze (International Secretary), Nino Jhvania (Board Member), David Turashvili (Board Member), Naira Gelashvili (board member), Giorgi Kekelidze Board memeber), Irakli Kakabadze (member*).
 

Georgian deputy prime minister Temur Iakobishvili has followed in the footsteps of his president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who earlier this year labelled persistent international reports of attacks on media freedom as "total bullshit", by denying there was any harassment or intimation of journalists in Georgia.

The claim came on the day that the Swiss authorities announced they had granted political asylum to Vakhtang Komakhidze, an investigative journalist who made many enemies in the government after he exposed the inner workings of the state's propaganda machine (see video).

Harassment of journalists is far from rate in Georgia. Examples over the last year have included attempts at homophobic blackmail, an attack on Maestro TV's camera crew and the more recent physical attack on journalists filming the removal of Stalin's statute in Gori. Although all three of these incidents (and there are others) were well documented none ended in any sort of action being taken against the perpretrators.

"First Caucasian" - Mikheil Saakashvili's pet project of broadcasting in Russian to the Northern Caucasus - has lost its Paris court case against Eutelsat, who dropped the TV channel's signal earlier this year, and now looks set for closure.

Launched with great fanfare at the start of the year the channel - aimed specifically at viewers outside Georgia - added to the financial strain on the Georgian Public Broadcaster and contributed to GPB's decision to effectively shut up shop for the summer to save money.

Then GPB took First Caucasian off an alternative satellite channel and left it broadcasting only on the internet and GPB's director Gia Chanturia said the station's future would depend on the outcome of the Paris court case.

First Caucasian won some plaudits for cutting through the Kremlin's propaganda wall but many questioned why a the Georgian state was spending money on channel targetting an audience outside its own borders when the public television channel that serves its own taxpayers was in such desperate straits.