Apple vs. The FBI: A Broadcast of Ineptitude

Issue no: 835www.georgiatoday.ge

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NEWS PAGE 2

POLITICS PAGE 4

BUSINESS PAGE 9

SOCIETY PAGE 16

CULTURE PAGE 16

In this week’s issue...Countdown Nine Months: DAGI to Reconstruct Rustavi City Center

Inside the Mind of a Georgian Producer Living in Berlin

On Law and the Iranian Connection

• APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50

Continued on page 2

Someone Else’s War

BY NICHOLAS WALLER

According to a new survey released by the National Democratic Insti-tute on Monday, a majority of Geor-gian citizens want the country to continue on its path towards join-

ing the NATO military alliance and the European Union.

The poll, carried out from February 23-March 14, found that of the 3,900 respondents, 68 percent said NATO membership and is essential for Geor-gia, and 77 per cent in favour of joining the EU.

Poll Finds Majority of Georgians Want to Join NATO, EU

FOCUSON NATURE PROTECTION

The new Regional Executive Director of the Caucasus Nature Fund on Georgia’s Protected Areas and what is being done to better them

PAGE 12

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 20162 NEWS

Continued from page 1

Poll Finds Majority of Georgians Want to Join NATO, EU

A majority of respondents (23 percent) also said that Euro-Atlantic integration best ensures the country’s national security.

When asked if Georgia would benefi t both eco-nomically and in terms of security, a solid major-ity of 54 percent of the respondents agreed that closer relations with the West would be a boon for Georgia’s sagging economy and best manage the on-going security tensions over the Russian-backed breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Euro-Atlantic integration scored high with those polled, with 64 percent saying Georgia’s foreign policy should be pro-Western.

An overwhelming number of respondents (62 percent) agreed that EU membership should be the stated foreign policy goal of the government.

The public’s support for Western integration appears to have recovered from a low point in August 2015, when opinion polls showed backing for both NATO and EU accession had steadily weakened to 46 per cent, with 30 per cent of those

polled advocating closer ties with Russia.Only 19 percent of those polled called for closer

relations with Russia and its Eurasian Customs Union, with the highest support coming from Georgia’s ethnic minority communities.

These groups are generally known to have poor Georgian language skills and thus rely solely on Russian news sources like Sputnik, LifeNews and RT (formerly Russia Today), all of which have been accused of broadcasting Kremlin-sanctioned propaganda.

National respondents listed Russia and its allies (49 percent) and ISIS (8 percent) as the country’s greatest security threats.

In what could be a precursor to the way many Georgians will vote in the upcoming October par-liamentary elections, 39 percent of those polled said the country is going in the wrong direction and 66 percent rated the country’s economy as either ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.

Amongst those that gave a decisive thumbs down to the current economic situated, a staggering 81 percent blamed the ruling Georgian Dream coali-tion for their handling of the national economy.

BY EKA KARSAULIDZE

Georgia was among the winners of the annual European Emergency Number Association (EENA) Award. The country’s 112 emergency service was named the best for its innovative

efforts to ensure that the entire community, includ-ing people with special needs, is able to get help when needed.

The emergency hotline 112 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia introduced its service in March 2015. SMS and video call connection was created for those who cannot hear or speak. The service for people with hearing and speech impair-ments is available 24/7 throughout Georgia, free of charge. In order to have better communication and service provision, the creators of the program ask prior registration as an obligatory condition.

Georgia joined the EENA on September 3, 2013 and began a systematized call process for medical services, Patrol Police and Fire/Rescue. The new SMS and video call service has made it available for everyone and has earned the trust of the popu-lation.

“We created this service to give people with dis-

EENA Awards 112 Georgia for Best Innovative Efforts in Disability Support

abilities an opportunity to contact us very easily and independently. Moreover, the EENA award is an impetus for us to move forward, to improve and create new services and to save more lives,” said Giorgi Bichashvili, the Director of 112 Georgia.

Chair of the EENA Advisory Board, Demetrios Pyrros, named this as an important step to sup-porting people with disabilities. “It was a pleasure for us to give an award to Georgia for the second time, this time in recognition of the assessment of people with disabilities,” said Pyrros. The previous Award, “Outstanding Citizen,” was given tor 8-year-old Aleksandr Blozhadze from Georgia.

“It was also important to show that the message of 112 message is not confi ned within the bounda-ries of the European Union, but also goes outside to other countries which support 112’s initiative,” Pyrros added.

EENA is a Brussels-based non-governmental organization set up in 1999 dedicated to promoting high-quality emergency services reached by the number 112 throughout Europe. EENA member-ships include more than 1200 emergency services representatives from more than 80 countries world-wide, 75 solution providers, 15 international asso-ciations or organizations, more than 200 Members of the European Parliament and more than 90 researchers.

BY EKA KARSAULIDZE

Rustavi City Hall and local DAGI Con-struction Company have begun the reconstruction of the historic center of Rustavi. The project includes recon-struction and modernization of one of

the city’s central avenues and the creation of more recreation zones. Reconstruction works will last nine months and are said to be valued at 4.7 mil-lion GEL.

“This is a large-scaled project,” Rustavi Mayor Davit Jikia sad. “The whole infrastructure is to be changed. Yet, while the avenue will be fully reno-vated, the buildings will maintain their original architectural character.”

In the framework of the projects, buildings 1 to 17 of the central historic Kostava Avenue will be rehabilitated. However, the city authorities plan to continue the project and renovate 23-24 Kostava Avenue up to Alievi Square. Moreover, street cafes, upgraded buildings, new bus stops and rubbish bins, rehabilitated roads, green areas and new street lighting will transform Kostava Avenue into one

Countdown Nine Months: DAGI to Reconstruct Rustavi City Center

of the most beautiful and attractive spaces in Rustavi. “We are supporting the development of street

cafes and hope to have several along the length of the new Kostava Avenue,” said the Mayor. “That doesn’t mean, however, that we’ll be forcing cur-rent cafe owners out of their buildings to open street cafes- they can do so if they wish, with our support, and have the space in front of their build-ings sold to them for a symbolic price.”

DAGI Construction Company, which is involved in the project, lays claim to over 300 completed projects throughout Georgia. It is best known for the Dinamo Arena rehabilitation in Tbilisi, the renovation of Sataplia Cave (Western Georgia), and Mestia center (Svaneti). It has also completed or renovated offi ce spaces, residential buildings, community parks, automobile infrastructure, irri-gation engineering and drinking water infrastruc-ture.

Currently, DAGI is also in charge of the major ‘New Tifl is’ project which aims to restore the David the Builder (Agmashenebeli) Avenue and Dry Bridge area, among the oldest districts of Tbilisi. In addition, DAGI is also conducting works on the important Rukhi Trading Center near the admin-istrative border between Georgia and Abkhazia.

Photos by Info Rustavi

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 3NEWS

OP-ED BY NICHOLAS WALLER

The recent collapse of Ukraine’s post-Maidan Revolution government, a brief war in the disputed Caucasus region of

Nagorno-Karabakh and an announce-ment earlier this week by South Osse-tia’s Russian-backed rebel leaders that they plan to hold a referendum on for-mally joining Moscow are a stark reminder for the West’s leaders that all is not well in the post-Soviet space.

For more than 20 years, presidents and prime ministers from Washington to Vienna have struggled to formulate a coherent and lasting policy towards the Soviet Union’s 15 former republics.

The early euphoria that swept the region shortly after the Soviet Union ceased to exist gave way to economic chaos and bloody separatist wars that claimed thou-sands of lives and fundamentally sabo-taged the goodwill of the West.

The West, ever eager but woefully inadequate in its understanding of the vast complexities of the newly inde-pendent states, has vacillated between catering to the wishes of Russia at the expense of the other 14 states and tak-ing fi rm steps towards shoring up the smaller, but no less important, nations

The West Must Be Serious in Its Support for Georgia and Ukraine

on Moscow’s fl ank.Russia has pursued a policy of sub-

verting the West’s attempts to gain headway in a region that it considers its ‘near abroad’ Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years bristled at the notion that either the US or Europe has a strategic interest in the region. His worldview remains unchanged from his days as a KGB offi cer in the old Ger-man Democratic Republic.

It is because of his unwavering world-view that Putin has been able to under-mine the efforts, or lack thereof, of suc-cessive Western governments who hoped to promote and expand the rule of law and democratic values throughout the former Soviet space.

Since the Soviet collapse, Moscow’s realpolitik view of its former imperial possessions has allowed it to subvert and control the development of each country by promoting endemic corrup-tion and oligarchical by providing cheap money and political support to the many anti-democratic governments that rule from Minsk to Dushanbe.

Western leaders were quick to embrace revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine that brought down corrupt discredited gov-ernments and ushered in periods of reform and re-orientation towards a Euro-Atlantic alliance.

But as we saw in Russia in the early 1990s when a reformist minded govern-

ment failed to deliver on its promise to capitalize and democratize society, the mood in the body politic shifted to such an extent that the rise of populist nation-alists and e-KGB agents became accept-able to the average citizen.

Georgia’s experiment with post-Soviet democracy, independent of Moscow’s corrosive infl uence has been mixed. While deep reforms ended the chaotic failed state era of two decades ago, the country has yet to shed its habit of elect-ing a personality rather than a policy that best suits the country’s interests.

The successive administrations of former President Mikheil Saakashvili and ex-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanish-vili were based less on the national will and rather focused on the individual merits of the personalities involved. In the case of both, each saw their admin-istrations accused of forcing the coun-try down the wrong path.

The West’s distaste for the bombastic demagoguery of Saakashvili and crude oligarch authoritarianism of Ivanishvili tried their patience to the point that neither Washington nor Brussels takes much time to consider their strategic interests in Georgia as seriously as they did 10 years ago.

By leaving Georgia adrift the West risks losing a key player in the post-Soviet zone. Georgia has been the most successful of the former republics –

outside of the Baltics – in terms of rule of law, freedom of speech and ease of doing business. Though both Saakash-vili and Ivanishvili have been guilty of authoritarianism, the democratic pro-cess remains robust and deeply ingrained in Georgians’ minds.

Western countries must come to the realization that support for Georgia and Ukraine must be at the center of their foreign policy agendas. Moscow’s abil-ity to foment wars in the South Cauca-

sus or separatism in the Donbass basin force leaders in London and Berlin to come to the realization that a strategic plan must come into focus before the local populations turn on the hard fought reforms and democratic paths that they’ve longed for since 1991.

A failure to do so will inevitably lead to the end of both Tbilisi’s and Kiev’s drive towards fi nding an independent voice, free from the will of Putin’s Rus-sia.

Source: Reuters, May 2014

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 20164 POLITICS

BY WILL CATHCART

It is an unusual thing to see the United States Government go to war with the American private sector. It is unprecedented for the Federal Bureau of Investiga-

tion (FBI) to go to war with the most valuable company in the entire world, Apple, which also happens to be Amer-ican.

This all began, publically at least, when two of what the FBI called “homegrown violent extremists,” (basically two radi-cal Islamic terrorists acting alone) killed 14 people and injured more than twenty in a mass shooting. One of the perpetra-tors, Syed Farook, who slaughtered his own colleagues, had an iPhone 5c, which was recovered from the scene.

As the New York Times reported, The head of the FBI acknowledged on Tues-day that his agency lost a chance to cap-ture data from the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers when it ordered that his password to the online storage service iCloud be reset shortly after the rampage. “There was a mistake made in the 24 hours after the attack,” James B. Comey Jr., Director of the FBI, told lawmakers at a hearing on the gov-ernment’s attempt to force Apple to help ‘unlock’ the iPhone. FBI personnel appar-ently believed that by resetting the iCloud password, they could get access to infor-mation stored on the iPhone. Instead, the change had the opposite effect — locking them out and eliminating other means of getting in.

Apple vs. The FBI: A Broadcast of Ineptitude

This was the FBI’s fi rst mistake. Since February the FBI has endured a public relations nightmare by angering a major-ity of the tech community and a good portion of the American public. The controversy surrounded a court order compelling Apple to design new software to bypass its own encryption in order for authorities to access the device. Apple refused. It is not the fi rst time. In 2015-2016 Apple has received more than ten court orders to bypass its own encryp-tion based on a US law from 1789 (seri-ously).

This is a larger issue than simply unlock-ing an iPhone and is indicative of a larger problem. As Venturebeat.com recently wrote, “The government’s efforts to force Apple to help it unlock the San Ber-nardino iPhone have reignited a national debate about encryption, security and privacy that continues to rage two weeks after the Justice Department said it broke into the phone without Apple’s help.”

Here’s the real problem: It’s not that Apple has gotten too good at this; it is that the United States of America’s FBI cannot keep up. Apple is brilliant at PR. It makes very good and very secure products. What you are reading now was written on an Apple device. In the past Apple has been able to—for the most part—protect its users from the major-ity of viruses that plagued Microsoft devices, for instance. Now Apple is attempting, successfully, to protect its users from something else: advanced technology designed to bypass data encryption, which is generally either employed by governments or by advanced hackers.

In the case of Syed Farook’s iPhone an unknown outside group of hackers was hired to break into the phone for the FBI. By most accounts even the FBI does not know exactly how they did this. Nor, it seems, does Apple. There is an immense irony here. The FBI’s job is to protect the American people and their property. They don’t have the technology to do this, so they reach out to a foreign group of hackers to fi nd a way into the iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple is trying to protect its customers all around the world from what it sees as an inherent right to pri-vacy and property—something many believe the FBI should be doing—if only it could. Things have gotten a bit turned around.

The FBI now looks absolutely desper-ate, pitiful and inept. They are in charge of protecting the United States. They are the best and the brightest with the full resources of the US Government at their disposal, and they can’t fi gure out how to unlock a cell phone; to break a four digit code. What happened to Amer-ica’s brilliant Cold War cryptology tra-decraft?

Instead, the FBI has come off as pub-licly bullying Apple and publicizing the FBI’s ineptitude. Imagine- even 15 years ago, if the FBI could not recover infor-mation from a CD or DVD, they would not have publicly taken the CD manu-facturer to court and broadcasted their inability to keep up with technological advancement.

For many in the United States, it seems like the guys who are supposed to be several steps ahead have fallen way behind. Of course, young talent has been

drawn to Silicon Valley for a long time. But that’s no excuse for any government that attempts to play the global role that the United States has chosen to play.

At best it seems that the FBI and the White House have lost perspective and miscalculated the situation. They should

be handling these issues in a more savvy way. At worst, they are currently broad-casting a message of weakness to a degree where if Apple is not intimidated, then imagine America’s enemies. FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, as disgusting as he was, would be disgusted.

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 5POLITICS

OP-ED BY ZVIAD ADZINBAIA

The late ex-Prime Minister of Georgia, Zurab Zhvania, at the European Council session back in 1999, proudly said the following: “I am

Georgian, therefore I am European.” The very wording by the then-Georgian Par-liamentary Speaker mystifi ed many in Georgia and outside as the country’s majority envisioned no alternative to their odious Northern neighbor, Russia.

Now it’s quite largely believed that since the Rose Revolution in 2003, Geor-gia, surprisingly to the masses, had rein-vented and transformed itself from failed state to success story in the South Cau-casus region. For a country whose name was frequently associated with the US state or Russia’s backyard, it was more than the making of an extra mile to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in June 2014.

Conversely, the country, on track to its cultural family, Europe, experienced a myriad of setbacks and political unrests, experiencing debates and claims whether it was a bottom-up democracy, good governance, an attempt to ‘brainwash’ Georgian people or a real path, a path leading to a better, promising future for the long-captivated nation.

The European ambitions of the home-land of notorious Joseph Stalin was as unaccepted by Putin’s Russia as any kind of success possible for a South Caucasian or Eastern European, country. For this reason, the Russian government in 2008 sent their ‘Orthodox’ bombardiers, tanks

I Am Georgian - Europe Begins Here and Now

and other heavy armor to Georgia to disrupt the country’s painfully built western path. However, Georgia trans-formed the dire event into an opportu-nity to further solidify its ambitions and empower more to get into NATO and the EU in a faster manner.

EUROPE ON MY MIND - BEYOND THE ASSOCIATION AGREEMENTWhile it is true that the obligations and standards set by the Association Agree-ment (AA) must be met, there is a lot the government and the public them-selves should do. The AA formalities oftentimes give unsubstantiated reasons for some Russia-leaning parties in Geor-gia to claim that European states are trying to orchestrate processes in Geor-gia. In this rhetoric, those anti-western-ers from the Soviet intelligentsia circles have engendered a term “Gapidarasteba” which means the West is trying to take the ‘manhood’ or ‘Georgian spirit’ from the ancient-rooting public. In fact, Rus-sia’s information propaganda is clearly nontrivial in this opinion-making pro-cess.

WHY EUROPE? Because it is Georgia’s cultural family, as the country is part of the Christian civilization and has fought grave wars and battles to reach the old continent. Europe, because it promises a better and secure future for Georgian children who need to make their own contributions to their country and world progress; because Europe has strongly determined that occupation in the 21st century is one of the most uncivilized actions and

the very principles of freedom, equality and unity still matter. And because there are values people live for and have died for. Because…

WHY NOT RUSSIA? No statistical analyst is necessary to estimate the damage Russia has caused to Georgia in any period of history throughout two centuries of relations. Even the most biased historians are unable to recall any damage that Georgia has caused to Russia. Is this formula hard to comprehend? The facts that matter in the Georgian-Russian relations are Russia’s annexation of Georgia in the 19th century and subsequent termina-tion of the autonomy of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In addition, the Bol-shevik occupation of Georgia in 1921 did not end simply as 20 percent of the ter-ritory is under Russia’s current occupa-tion. Innumerable things could be added. And Russia has no respect for independ-

ence, freedom or any kind of development.

WHERE DO WE GO NOW? For Georgians, this could be translated as a way to ask themselves: what do we need to make our lives better? Or more European? Or more developed? They could be synonyms for Georgians who really dream of a better country.

As the science of mathematics is exact in its philosophy, for Georgia, incorpo-rating a simple arithmetic for securing a European path could be a good way. In fact, respecting the rule of law, learn-ing more and educating future genera-tions, cherishing science and rewarding the bright-minded could lead to a quite promising sum – the sum that equals to being among the developed nations of Europe or any other continent. And with

that, finally, one can freely conclude: I am a Georgian – Europe begins here and now.

ZVIAD ADZINBAIA is an Analyst at Georgia Today, covering security, foreign policy, and the domestic politics of Georgia. He is affi liated with the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS). From fall 2016, Zviad will be joining the George Washington University’s Elliot School of Inter-national Affairs as a Master’s student in Security Studies.

For a country whose name was frequently associated with the US state or Russia’s backyard, it was more than the making of an extra mile to sign the Association Agreement with the EU in June 2014

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 20166 POLITICS

OP-ED BY ZAZA JGARKAVA

Forecasts in politics are considered a thankless task, especially when it comes to Russia. However, it should be noted that the Kremlin’s new policy has been successful so far. “Refrigerator” instead

of “Iskanders” turned out to be much more attrac-tive for Georgians than anyone in Moscow could have imagined. Apparently, this is what the Min-ister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov had in mind when he announced the increase of staff members in the Russian section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia. Taking into consideration the ‘army’ of Georgian job seekers, the ‘news’ announced by the Russian diplomat seems quite reliable: “The number of visa applications has increased by 30%, therefore we wish to receive support from our Swiss colleagues in increasing the staff of our consulate by a few positions.”

In light of this announcement, the results of the survey conducted by the NDI and published after Lavrov’s speech gain a rather original meaning. To the question about which country carries the big-gest threat to Georgia, 47% of those interviewed answered Russia, while only 8% responded the Islamic State and other countries. We are dealing with a really interesting phenomenon as the citi-zens of a country which considers Russia its main enemy at the same time considers it to be its main employer. Member of non-parliamentary party ‘Democratic Georgia,’ Petre Mamradze, believes that the desire of ordinary citizens to go to Russia is not accidental. “This is crucial for the existence of Georgia. Today, up to a million Georgian citizens sending money to Georgia live in Russia. They are supporting their families and relatives with the money made in Russia. Therefore, many Georgian citizens want to go to Russia and fi nd a job there. Apart from this, the historical factor has to be taken into consideration, too,” says Mamradze. Offi cial Russian data suggests that about 160 thousand

We Love Them, We Love Them Not…

Georgian citizens are living in Russia today, not the million Mamradze suggested. However, this does not change the existing reality.

This fact could have been explained by the general peculiarity of social surveys, but considering the recent events taking place in Georgia, it still remains a mystery. Some time ago, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the informal leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, announced that, “All in all, Russia cannot put South Ossetia and Abkhazia on its shoulders and take it away, can it?” And the fact that the shareholder of Gazprom is repeating this famous Georgian narra-tive is the most interesting part about the announce-ment. Shouldn’t a political leader carry more respon-sibility than ordinary citizens? Member of the ‘Expert’s Club,’ Vakhtang Maisaia also sees evidence of Geor-gian Dream supporting pro-Russian sentiments. He is confi dent that, despite the offi cial western prop-aganda, governmental actions are still against it. “78% of the population supported NATO integration in 2008. Today, only 52% do. It is because of this government that the electorate has moved to the camp of pro-Russians,” says Maisaia.

Of course Russia cannot carry our territories “on its shoulders” and take it somewhere. But it doesn’t need to do this and most importantly it doesn’t plan on doing so. The Kremlin already did what it wanted by sending military forces to these terri-tories; it doesn’t want to do more than that. Another achievement of the Kremlin is added to all of this: Russia conducts direct negotiations with Offi cial Tbilisi and not in the presence of the international community. Apparently, it was no accident when the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Russia told Giorgi Karasin, “We do not need intermediaries with Georgia.” After this, it should come as no sur-prise that the population perceives Russia both as its enemy and its savior. In general, naivety in politics is described by another word which has something with do with stupidity. If we continue the same course of the foreign policy that we have been following over the last 20 years, the “Bilateral meetings with Karasin” won’t bring anything other than damage.

BY EKA KARSAULIDZE

Recent poll results from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and CRRC Georgia, which were presented on April 13, revealed serious prob-lems in public trust of the majoritar-

ian party and showed that many do not know who to vote for. Yet the majority of the Georgian population positively evaluates the work of the current Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and suggests that Georgian Dream will win the upcom-ing elections on October 8.

Conducting this survey was particularly impor-tant in the context of the upcoming parliamen-

tary elections in order to identify weaknesses and problems in the community, to hear the voice of the people and to identify priority areas for policy makers.

In particular, the poll shows that Georgians do not believe Members of Parliament (MPs) consider citizens’ opinions or take action to solve their problems. The majority (64 percent) believes their MP only represents his or her own interests, while only 24 percent of Geor-gians describe MPs as representing them. Almost no-one (2 percent) has been contacted by an MP or his or her staff since the 2012 elec-tions, and fewer than one-third (31 percent) can correctly name their majoritarian repre-sentative.

Photo by: MyLifeThroughTheLens

Continued on page 9

NDI: Georgians Still Politically Undecided Six Months Prior to Parliamentary Elections

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 7POLITICS

BY NANA SAJAIA FOR VOA GEORGIAN SERVICE

Nate Schenkkan is the Project Direc-tor for ‘Nations in Transit,’ Freedom House’s annual survey of democratic governance from Central Europe to Eurasia. Considering the noise that

NDI and IRI polls tend to bring out in Georgian society, the Georgian service of Voice of America decided to meet with Mr. Schenkkan to discuss the perceptions of Georgia that exist in the West.

YOUR LATEST REPORT FOUND THAT THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE IS THE SPREAD OF DEEPLY ILLIBERAL POLITICS. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR GEORGIAN DEMOCRACY? In Georgia, I think the danger in the elections is alienation of the other sides, demonization of the other within the Georgian political system so that collaboration or constructive criticism becomes impossible. As we have seen in other parts of the region and other parts of Europe, this can create opportunities for other parties; for parties that are, in fact, illiberal, that denounce the system of democ-racy as a whole or question its values and question the idea of tolerance or the idea of accepting other views.

That is not the main danger in Georgia. I wouldn’t say that we’ll be seeing such illegal parties become dominant in Georgia, but they could increase their vote-share, they could become more infl uential. That’s something we’ll be watching closely.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DANGER, THEN?In Georgia, the biggest danger might be the polit-icization of the judiciary system. We noted that there were positive reforms on-going in the judicial framework and in the practices of judiciary for the common man. A normal person might actually have a better interaction in the judiciary and in the penal system than they had several years ago. That was a positive improvement and we improved the score for that reason.

But in high profi le cases – cases like Rustavi 2 and Mayor Ugulava’s case, you have very politicized decision-making and confl icts between different parts of the judiciary, one part of the judiciary reject-ing the other part of the judiciary, in some cases the superior part of the judiciary’s reasoning. It seems hard to interpret that in any other way except that these were political judicial decisions. That’s very worrying. The biggest concern that we have is that this kind of politicized decision-making could get worse. We don’t think it necessarily will, but that’s what we would be the most afraid of.

SINCE GEORGIA BECAME INDEPENDENT 25 YEARS AGO, THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE HAVE SPOKEN ABOUT INFORMAL RULING. WHAT IMPLICATIONS DOES THAT HAVE ON GEORGIA’S WESTERN ASPIRATIONS AND ITS PERCEPTION INTERNATIONALLY?It’s easier to speak about the perceptions, because

Nate Schenkkan: Georgia, a Competition of Interests

the question of informal rule is very hard to prove by nature. It’s a very challenging one for a report and methodology that is trying to stick with what can be proven. So that degree of informal rule, the degree of informal infl uence from a billionaire behind the scenes, is hard to evaluate by nature.

The perception, however, is defi nitely damaging. The perception that Georgia’s politics can be sub-ject to manipulation or can be subject to actors working outside the accountable system is danger-ous.

We pay attention to the fact that there seems to be a quite a bit of infl uence from outside the sys-tem, and Ivanishvili is involved in that and we are attentive to this issue. How that gets solved is a hard question, as is what is the mechanism by which that informal infl uence can cease to exist.

YOUR REPORT SAYS FRUSTRATION WITH BOTH GEORGIAN DREAM AND THE UNITED NATIONAL MOVEMENT COULD PRODUCE GAINS FOR PRO-RUSSIAN PARTIES, DESPITE OVERALL SUPPORT FOR GEORGIA’S LONG-STANDING POLICY ORIENTATION TOWARD EUROPE AND THE US. HOW SERIOUS IS THE RISK OF SEEING AN INCREASE OF PRO-RUSSIAN FORCES IN GEORGIAN POLITICS?Our understanding is that there’s no risk of them gaining so much as the former government, or becoming the leading party in the Coalition, but that they will gain enough to be in parliament and be well represented, and to be able to infl uence the discourse.

The general attitudes continue to be basically pro-European, but the frustration with the particu-lar parties that hold those views could be leading people to consider voting for other parties that might not even represent them well, but out of frustration, out of protest.

YOUR REPORT FURTHER STATES THAT THE UPCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN 2016 WILL BE A MAJOR TEST FOR GEORGIA. WILL THEY BE A TEST? WHAT IS AT STAKE?Is the system stable enough to continue very long-term diffi cult reforms that have been going on now for almost 10 years? Parliamentary elections are a moment when everything that has been worked on for 10 years gets put to the test by voters – do we want to move forward in the direction that we’ve been going or do we want to go in a differ-ent direction? It is a test of the process, as every election is – will ballots be counted? Will people be able to vote? In that sense it is always a test to democracy.

Unfortunately, right now, you can look at Georgia as what some political analysts call an “affectless pluralist model”. There is pluralism, there is com-petition between parties, but it is not necessarily a competition of ideas at all times. It is more a competition of interests and the results that it pro-duces tend to be more rotations of who is in power rather than changes in policies or giving direction to state development.

For the full interview in Georgian, go to: http://www.amerikiskhma.com/a/nations-intransit/3283982.html

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 20168 POLITICS

OP-ED BY TIM OGDEN

From what I’ve seen of life dur-ing my brief time on this planet, I’ve realised that politicians have wonderfully short mem-ories. Think of the events of

the last week alone: David Cameron, who once criticised tax evaders, has been revealed to have undeclared assets out-side the UK; Donald Trump, the prospec-tive King of the United States, donated money to Hilary Clinton’s election cam-paign of 2008 despite his current anti-Democrat stance.

It is naturally hard to tell if politicians are oblivious to the parallels between themselves and those they criticise or if they are simply capable of taking hypoc-risy into the realms of high art. The UNM contend that the Georgian Dream gov-ernment is controlled by Bidzina Ivan-ishvili, who in turn is a thrall to a man in Moscow; the fact that another man in Ukraine who is currently not even a citizen of Georgia has thinly-veiled infl u-ence on the UNM is something that is either forgotten or wilfully ignored. The

circumstances are no doubt different, though the principle remains the same.

I recall a time when the United National Movement party complained about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s ownership of TV9, a station which they claimed he used for political purposes. Ivanishvili owning a television channel should hardly be sur-prising; when someone has bought giraffes, penguins and sharks to keep as pets in his luminous green palace, a TV station here or there is surely all in a day’s spending. The UNM also seem happy to deny the fact that Rustavi 2 is a mouthpiece for the party even in the face of past criticism of breaching media impartiality from Georgia’s international partners and despite blatant bias towards the UNM from the broadcaster itself.

I personally have little love for the cur-rent ruling Georgian coalition, but as a member of the media (I am, you know; I have business cards) I aim for impar-tiality. Oh, left-wing rags like The Huff-ington Post or The Guardian might express sympathy towards one party or another but never put them beyond criticism, and generally espouse an ide-ology rather than act as a propaganda machine for a party (unless it’s the BBC;

it’s high time Blair’s Beautiful Channel went the way of the dodo).

This week, Rustavi 2 again showed its allegiance over a case of a university employee in Gori. The city of Gori, it should be noted, is the hometown of Stalin, and many of the citizens still like to fondly recall him as the Local Boy Done Good. The rector of the university is an aged gentleman of Stalinist sym-pathies who came under fi re from one of his former lecturers who claimed that she, a vehement anti-Stalinist, had been denied working hours due to her pro-gressive leanings.

Sources claim that the former lecturer’s allegations are simply not true, but the story has been pounced on by Rustavi 2; an episode of its Profi li talk show is also being scheduled to be aired soon. My regular readers will recall my com-plaining over Georgian talk shows need-ing something new to debate rather than dreadful arthouse sex fi lms, but this was not really what I’d had in mind.

In social networks, the UNM claim that the former lecturer is being persecuted due to the malignant pro-Russian Geor-gian Dream government, which seems a rather simplistic view of the Coalition.

Facts (and the whole town of Gori) remember a fact that speaks of the oppo-site: the university was pressured to fi re the very same lecturer during the dying minutes of UNM rule and they refused to do so. Oh, the woes and pains of hav-ing a short memory!

The fact that nobody at the university preaches a Stalinist ideology has been utterly forgotten or ignored. It is a sad fact that in Georgia accusations serve the purpose of truths, while denials are solely seen as further evidence of guilt.

The UNM’s close relationship with Rustavi 2 is hardly a secret (it’s hard to deny a cordial relationship of some kind when there’s talk of barring the doors of the main offi ces and fending off the police with rifl es together a la Davy Crockett;

I refer to the leaked phone calls between UNM and Rustavi 2 offi cials earlier this year), but its criticism of the government for hindering a free media environment while enjoying almost open use of one of the country’s biggest television net-works is utterly hypocritical.

As a Georgian citizen myself, I hope for a media free from outside infl uences (or at least that’s what I was paid to write) whoever wins the elections this year; I’d also like to see people be more outraged at such obvious tactics of using media outlets to further political aims. To my fellow citizens, I say this – do not be fooled by propaganda. And to our poli-ticians, if you’re going to play dirty, at least try and be a little more subtle about it. Everyone knows politicians speak with forked tongues, but liars we can accept providing we know they are intel-ligent enough to lie well.

Ogden on Media and Manipulation: Case Study on Stalin, Gori and Media Propaganda

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 9BUSINESS

Read. Learn. Enjoy. Pick up a copy of Georgia Today Education

at any BIBLUS shop or phone 229 59 19

Price: 2 Gel

NDI: Georgians Still Politically Undecided Six Months Prior to Parliamentary Elections

Continued from page 6 Georgian Dream as the party which they feel closest to, 15 percent chose United National Movement (the former ruling party), 9 percent Free Democrats, 5 per-cent the Labor Party, and 5 percent the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia.

If elections were held tomorrow, 15 percent of the respondents of the NDI poll say they would vote for Georgian Dream, 13 percent for United National Movement, 6 percent for Free Democrats, 4 percent for the Labor Party, and 3 per-cent for the Alliance of Patriots.

Thornton claims that Georgians are dissatisfi ed with and disappointed in the country’s political leaders, saying they do not represent them and are not acces-sible to them. “It is not, therefore, sur-prising that citizens are completely undecided about their political support. Parties and politicians have a lot of work to do over the months ahead of the elec-tions to rebrand, rebuild trust, and talk to voters about issues that really matter to them,” she said.

The results refl ect data collected from February 23 to March 14 through face-to-face interviews with a nationwide representative sample of citizens of Georgia that included 3,900 completed interviews.

“According to Georgians, parliament is falling short on its main responsibility – to represent the needs and interests of citizens. Its members, and even the build-ing itself, are seen as inaccessible to the public,” said NDI Senior Director Laura Thornton. “It is critical that Parliament pursue institutional reforms and build a culture that encourages greater con-stituent outreach, accountability, and accessibility, which will lead to more responsive legislation and policy-making to ensure that democracy in Georgia is delivering.”

Citizens remain dissatisfi ed with min-isterial work. They evaluate the Ministry of Labor, Healthcare, and Social Affairs the most favorably, followed by the Min-istry of Justice, and the Ministry of Euro-pean and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Recently-appointed Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili received the highest net-positive evaluation of key leaders, with 27 percent assessing his performance as ‘good’ and 42 percent as ‘average.’

The majority of Georgians (61 percent) remain undecided about their political alignment, including half of likely vot-ers. 16 percent of respondents choose

POLITICS

BY DIMITRI DOLABERIDZE

GEORGIA TODAY met busi-nessman Gelani Kha-lukhaev, President of Group Anaklia and the head of a consortium of oil compa-

nies, to discuss the appeal of Georgia as a place to do business, the challenges that have to be faced and Georgian-Ira-nian relations.

YOUR COMPANY INVESTS IN THE ECONOMY OF GEORGIA. WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION?In recent years Georgia has taken a sta-ble seat among countries with fast grow-ing economies. Thanks to advantageous leading reforms, Georgia has become one of the most attractive countries for foreign investors. Georgian parliament accepted successful legislation in recent

On Law and the Iranian Connection

years, including the Law ‘on High-moun-tainous Territories,’ which opens the broadest possibilities for business. It is one of the reasons company ‘Anaklia’ decided to do business in Georgia.

Georgia for me is the most beautiful country in the world and, what’s more, it has a favorable geographical location that allows one to work equally con-veniently for both the western and east-ern markets.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY’S BUSINESS PROJECTS AND WHAT OBSTACLES YOU FACED FROM THE FIRST DAY IN GEORGIA.The main activity of our company is connected with the processing of agri-cultural products, mineral water bottling, and manufacture of pharmaceutical products based on natural ingredients. In the near future, our company plans to launch a pharmaceutical factory for the production of pharmaceuticals in

liquid form, based on a unique mineral water ‘Lugela’ which is known for its high content of natural calcium, an important element in the pharmaceuti-cal industry. On the basis of ‘Lugela’ components, the company ‘Anaklia’ plans to release more than a dozen pharma-ceutical and cosmetic products.

Regarding the challenges faced by for-eign investors in Georgia, including our company, I would like to mention two important issues:

Georgia’s Law ‘on Land’, which restricts the right of a foreign investor to purchase land for agricultural purposes. This cre-ates obstacles to the establishment of industrial enterprises. However, since the beginning of this year, there have been positive developments in address-ing this problem.

For example: a foreign company acquires a license for the production and bottling of mineral water, in which it is stipulated that the mining claim on the well is an integral part of the license and is passed on to the licensee during the term of the license agreement. However, the struc-ture of Nature Protection and the Min-istry of Environment of Georgia advises the Ministry of Economy of Georgia, the Committee of State Property, and the Ministry of Justice that mining tracts of mineral water, according to the terms of the license agreement, are in the pos-session of the licensee. As a result, it is not uncommon for a third party to qui-etly apply for and purchase without any problems the territory of the mining lease, together with the well, and take it into private ownership. This is a fl agrant violation of the Georgian Law ‘on Sub-

soil,’ according to which mineral resources and mining allotment are pub-lic property and can under no circum-stances be sold or taken away in favor of third parties.

YOUR COMPANY IS STARTING TO EXPORT GEORGIAN PRODUCTS TO IRAN. WHY IS THIS COUNTRY ATTRACTIVE TO THE GEORGIAN ECONOMY?Georgia is interested in the Iranian mar-ket and vice versa. Georgia produces high-quality products, vegetables, fruits- a wide range of agricultural products which are very popular in Iran. In return, hydrocarbons and their derivatives, and technological equipment manufactured in Iran, which is no inferior in quality to the best world analogues, metal, and

more are of interest to Georgia. The proximity of Iran and Georgia, their age-old cultural and economic ties, open up opportunities for a fruitful, mutually benefi cial cooperation between the rep-resentatives of both countries. I am con-fi dent that the availability of these poten-tial opportunities in both countries will be actively implemented in the near future.

Born in 1962, Gelani Khalukhaev received his education from Tbilisi State Theatrical Insti-tute and graduated from the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Department of Pub-lic Service and Personnel Policy (Sociology). He has held a number of positions, at present he is working as the head and director of the group company ‘Anaklia’ in Tbilisi.

On April 12th, Holiday Inn Tbilisi hosted the fourth meeting of the Business Café, a project initiated by Insource, Executive Search

& Consulting and exclusively supported by PASHA Bank.

The session hosted the representatives of top management of the leading com-panies with special guest Papuna Toliash-vili, Managing Partner of consulting company ‘Synergy,’ presenting the topic of discussion “Circular Organizational Structures”.

The fi rst meeting of Business Café was

Fourth Meeting of Business Café Hosts Synergy’s Papuna Toliashvili

held in October, 2015, and has since grown signifi cantly in popularity as it is a for-mat that covers topics of high relevance to the business community. Insource and PASHA Bank plan to organize four more meetings throughout 2016.

“We are seeing an increasing interest towards the project that once again underscores the meeting format attrac-tiveness,” said Anano Korkia, Head of PR and Marketing Department at PASHA Bank. “Sponsorship of this project is interesting to us on a number of dimen-sions, foremost being the opportunity it gives to senior managers to meet and

share their knowledge and experiences. We generally try to support the projects aimed at fostering a healthy business environment. Business Café is one of the rare projects of the type which even if indirectly, contributes to the above mentioned objective.”

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 201610 SOCIETY

BY EKA KARSAULIDZE & KATIE RUTH DAVIES

The Georgian aesthetic clinic market is bursting the seams, with options to satisfy every beauty desire and need at almost any

price. Having got to the age when my age is starting to show, I thought it was time to look into what’s on offer. I quickly realized that price doesn’t always match quality. With that in mind, I got in touch with management at Bodyline to fi nd out more.

Bodyline was established in 2009 and is the only aesthetic clinic in Tbilisi to offer an FDA-approved Alexandrite laser (it also offers a Korean manufac-tured diode laser which is able to detect and eliminate blond hair as well as dark- good for us fair-haired Brits!).

In 2013, Bodyline was rebranded and, aside from the visual and aesthetics updates of its six locations around the capital, it was also among the fi rst to establish a fi xed price system to fi t the needs and demands of the current

Bodyline: Fixed Price Model for the Tbilisi Beauty Business

economy. No more paying-per-pulse for hair removal: now you pay per limb, regardless of how much work is needed to make you picture-perfect! The fi xed price system made aesthetic treatment affordable for everyone in Tbilisi.

We spoke to Tamar Kikabidze, PR Manager of the chain of Bodyline aes-thetic clinics, which, unlike many oth-ers, does seem to offer something unique. “We have fi xed prices for everything,” Kikabidze told us. “Laser hair removal, cellulite reducing procedures or cos-metology services – it doesn’t matter, you don’t need to worry about the cost of what you are doing each time you go, as Bodyline has fi xed prices on all its procedures- making it both com-petitive and available for the majority of the population. Our main aim is to be affordable for everyone.”

She gave an example of one of the most popular services in Bodyline – laser hair removal – which costs only 39 Lari large per body zone. “A few years ago, when laser hair removal first appeared on the Georgian market, it was a kind of luxury service and just a few people were able to use it. Now, everything has changed and everyone

sees the possibil-ity of being beau-tiful. Prices should be affordable so that even students, who have no stable income, are able to enjoy this ser-vice,” she said.

Nino Chumburidze, the manager of Bodyline, is based in America. It is from this location that the decision was made to use the American fi xed price model and to introduce the well-known Amer-ican brand South Seas spray tan, also FDA approved and used by many an American star.

Accordingly, Americans themselves became loyal partners in the business, providing Bodyline exclusively with high-class Polylase devices for laser hair removal – the only such machines in Georgia with an FDA license, which ensures a safe and painless procedure.

Bodyline also provides another in-demand service, cellulite reduction, with the unique VelaShape device, also coming exclusively and with an FDA license. Kikabidze explained that both these procedures are in high demand with women of all ages. “VelaShape in

particular is something new for our market, but is well-known

world-wide, so even Hollywood stars advertise it,” she claimed. “Experience has shown that, along with workouts, it gives an excellent result – effectively and safely contouring, shaping and slim-ming the body and fi rming problem areas in as little as four treatments.”

Bodyline also offers facial treatments using American preparations- Juvederm and Restylane fi llers for biorevilitiza-tion, and mezotherapy.

This author is tempted!Bodyline’s American partners con-

stantly work to provide Bodyline with all the latest technical innovations and upgrades. “Due to the fact that we have such reliable partners who provide us with equipment at a reasonable price, we have an opportunity to offer com-petitive rates with no loss to business,” said Kikabidze. Moreover, their Amer-ican colleagues visit Georgia twice a

year to inspect and train staff, so Body-line clients can always be confi dent about the quality of service and equip-ment they are getting.

Seven years since the fi rst Bodyline clinic opened, Kikabidze says the fi xed price concept has fully justifi ed itself. Clients often have to make an advance appointment. In addition, during their regular special offers, all six Tbilisi branches of Bodyline are packed with happy clients. “Recently, we began to receive requests to open branches in other cities of Georgia. For example, we know that in Kutaisi there are very high prices for laser hair removal. There-fore, we are already planning to enter the regional market,” she said.

If you, like me, are encouraged by this news, get in touch with Bodyline.

Facebook: Bodyline Tbilisi www.bodyline.geT: 2 306 306

Nino Chumburidze, the manager of Bodyline and Tamar Kikabidze, PR Manager

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 11SOCIETY

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BY NUGZAR B. RUHADZE

They were born in Georgia and grew up here with other Georgian kids; they went to Georgian schools and learnt the Georgian language- they hardly knew any language other than Geor-

gian; they even wrote poetry in Georgian and declaimed Georgian poesy while partying with their peers; they made traditional Georgian toasts and drank Georgian wine, claiming Georgia as their only motherland and swearing by its name and glory; they reminisced their dead, as Georgians do, when memories sallied forward as sacred images; they fell in love with their Georgian high school sweethearts and reared their kids in a purely Georgian way, just as they were reared by their parents; they recognized Christ, and, when worshiping Mohamed, they still cherished friendships with their Christian brothers and sisters; they were Georgians physically, mentally and spiritually. They still are. And while they are dying in someone else’s wars, they still bear in mind the land they loved and still love.

Today, 50 of these young men from Georgia have been recruited by the Islamic State to fi ght for their cause against the rest of the world. Some of them had, in the past, done their duty honorably to serve their motherland Georgia with weapons in their hands. Some were too young to be among the Geor-gian patriots in previous wars. Well, we all serve our own purposes and we are all called for and stand ready to defend the vested interests of our own countries. The Islamic State is probably acting in a similar fashion, but what bothers me is that the sons of Georgia, who have by birth been destined to fi ght their own wars when the crucial instant of belliger-ency would dictate, are now waging someone else’s war far from their native country.

Why are they doing this? Part of the explanation

should be in the depths of the newest world order which often goes wrong out of hand against the will of piece lovers and makers. Not all is fair and smooth in the world to satisfy and sate us all. The inequality and misbalanced distribution of wealth is still the vice that bothers Mankind and forges weighty reasons for wars. There is no judgment in the pipeline of whether this is fair or unfair. The world is by inertia living the way it is living. Those who are extremely dissatisfi ed get extremely angry and the extreme anger builds up the extremes that make wars. Some think that those wars are fair, some qualify it as terror. Meanwhile, the parties to the confl ict accumulate forces to defend their cause.

The fl agrantly aggressive and decidedly belliger-ent Islamic State needs supporters and it operates a vast and powerful PR machine for recruiting purposes. The machine has been effective in Geor-gia, too, as it happens to be in the rest of the world. The Islamic State Armed Forces are more interna-tionally-minded and organized than any well-known international body. They have fi ghters in their ranks from literally every part of the globe, including Georgia. And their warriors represent X-number of religions and ideologies, fanatically giving their lives to the Jihad cause. I will not offend them by means of using choice epithets like ‘brainwashed’ and ‘easily convinced,’ but I cannot refrain from describing these warrior Georgian kids as master-fully indoctrinated . . . at least.

But there must be other factors – besides ideo-logical – that affect the decision of Georgian youth to fi ght on the side of the raging Islam and to read-ily spill their Georgian blood to salvage the truth they believe is irrefutably fair and strong. Could there be some socially-based streaks to the process, too? I suspect so!

How busy are the young men and women in those regions of Georgia? What are their chances of mak-ing careers at home? Can they be as functional as they would like to see themselves in the surround-

ings where they grow up? Do we have any idea how ambitious they are in terms of building their own lives? I am sure they hate to be dependent on their parents’ miserable fortunes and meager salaries or pensions. They dream wildly of being independ-ent, and the sooner the better. Those boys and girls are falling in love with each other and they want to be married but the circumstances they are part of, by way of their regular living routine, does not

allow a happy conjugal life. The dire situation I hate to be describing here

could very well be a weakness that the Islamic State is taking advantage of for recruiting Georgia’s sons, and daughters into the bargain, to widen and strengthen their ever militant forces. Meanwhile, we would all rather hear that our youth are serving Georgia’s national ideals rather than heading off to fi ght someone else’s war.

Someone Else’s War

Photo: AFP, from independent.co.uk

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 201612 SOCIETY

10 Galaktion StreetTel: (995 32) 2 45 08 08

E-mail: info@peoplescafe.ge

German non-profi t organiza-tion the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) recently wel-comed its new regional executive director, George

Giacomini. via a message posted on its offi cial Web site.

A dual citizen of the United States and Italy, Giacomini - who goes by the name of Geof - previously worked as the coun-try director for US NGO Save the Chil-dren in Azerbaijan and Egypt. A Russian speaker, Geof graduated the University of Berkeley in California, one of the US’ top ranked centers for higher education.

GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Geof about CNF Georgia.

TELL US A LITTLE OF THE BACKGROUND OF CNF IN GEORGIACNF is a conservation trust fund created to safeguard the Caucasus eco-region, one of the most biologically rich and diverse areas on Earth. We provide grants to the protected areas (you can think of them as national parks) of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and build the government’s capacity to sustain the parks for future generations. Initially established in 2007 by the German Gov-ernment (BMZ), Conservation Interna-tional and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and with only one staff member, today we are a committed team of 10 working in the Caucasus and Europe.

In Georgia, CNF gave its fi rst grant to Borjomi Kharagauli National Park in 2009. This emergency grant supported fi re equipment and vehicles, with the fi rst three year grant agreement for Bor-jomi in 2010. Since then CNF has pro-vided nearly EUR 2 million in funding to nine parks in Georgia.

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CHANGES IN CNF. WHAT ARE ITS PRIORITIES NOW IN GEORGIA?David Morrison, who headed CNF for the past eight years, has retired and is now on the CNF Board and as of April 1, 2016, I’m offi cially the new Executive Director (ED). In addition, and this is part of the evolution of CNF, I’ll be mov-ing to Tbilisi in summer 2016 where I’ll be permanently based. At this stage of CNF’s life, the Board recognized that

George Giacomini, new regional executive director of German non-profi t organization, the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF)

having our ED in the Caucasus would ensure the most impact.

CNF will continue its comprehensive support for our core programs - sustain-able support for the operating costs (rangers’ salaries, fuel, equipment, vehi-cles, etc.) of parks - while deepening our long-term support for the management of planning at parks, eco-tourism, and biodiversity monitoring. Those may sound like words in a foreign language to some readers, but it simply means we work to improve the parks’ ability to provide better and more sustainable services to visitors, while protecting the fl ora and fauna in the parks and sur-rounding areas.

AS AN EXPERT, HOW DO YOU ASSESS THE DIVERSITY OF GEORGIAN PROTECTED AREAS AND NATIONAL PARKS? The Caucasus Ecoregion is considered one of the earth’s biodiversity hotspots according to Conservation International. There is plenty of information out there describing Georgia’s unique biodiversity, but here is a good place to start: http://www.conservation.org/How/Pages/Hotspots.aspx

This hotspot has the greatest biologi-cal diversity of any temperate forest region in the world. It shelters 6,400 species of plants, at least 1,600 (25%) of which are endemic to the region, and a number of endemic animals, including 50 that are considered “threatened”, which means they have a high risk of extinction in the wild. Mammals include the iconic Caucasus leopard, but also lynx, bears and wolves, as well as unique ungulates (hoofed mammals): the Arme-nian moufl on, turs, the bezoar goat, goi-tered gazelle (ceyran) and the maral red deer. The region is also a globally impor-tant migratory corridor for birds, and there are a host of endemic reptiles and insect species.

HOW ARE GEORGIA’S PROTECTED AREAS FARING IN THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY? WHAT CHALLENGES REMAIN?There are many challenges facing the Protected Areas in Georgia and across the South Caucasus, from underfunding of the parks and staff, to threats of unsus-

tainable land use (for example, illegal logging) and the illegal hunting of ani-mals (poaching). The staff I met in the parks and at the Ministry are committed, but more awareness and resources need to be made available in order to ensure our children, and our children’s children can benefi t from the beauty of the Cau-casus’ nature. One vital challenge to address is how to ensure both people and nature thrive. This important ques-tion is the one I want to answer more than any other, and I look forward to working with a large and diverse group of people in the Caucasus to do it. This actually takes more than a village!

YOU RECENTLY VISITED LAGODEKHI PROTECTED AREAS. WHAT IMPACT HAS CNF HAD ON CONSERVATION IN LAGODEKHI?I had the opportunity to accompany Lasha Moistsrapishvili (Director of Geor-gia’s Agency for Protected Areas) to Lagodekhi two weeks ago to meet staff – including the park director, Giorgi Sulamanidze and the head of the park administration, Natia Shalvashvili. Not only was I impressed by the staff, their knowledge of the parks and language abilities, but the services provided for adults and children are high quality. Dur-ing a walk through the park, it was evi-dent that that spring had arrived – with the sounds of rushing water, the chirping of too many birds to name, and the green buds from trees pushing out again into the world.

WHAT ARE SOME OF CNFS KEY LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS WITH GOVERNMENTAL/NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS?Our most important partners are the governments. CNF works through pub-lic-private partnerships with the govern-ments, which means that each side com-mits to long-term support for the parks. Following a “50% principle”, CNF matches but does not exceed State budgets but our contribution potentially doubles a specifi c park’s operating funds. We also work closely with other non-govern-mental organizations such as WWF and Nacres, as well as international donors

such as UNDP and GIZ, and of course other German-government funded nature protection programs in the South Cau-casus like the Transboundary Joint Sec-retariat.

WHAT IS CNF DOING TO PROMOTE ECOTOURISM IN THE PROTECTED AREAS, GIVEN THAT DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IS A PRIORITY FOR THE GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT?You’re right; a priority of the Georgian government is to increase and improve tourism experiences for visitors and a question we, and they ask is – how can we do it sustainably. Ecotourism is one of the ways and we believe strongly in the importance of ecotourism – espe-cially in the protected areas as a great source of income for the parks and local communities. CNF is currently support-ing the parks to develop tourism plans and hopefully set up concessions at the parks – to provide services for tourists and as a revenue source for the parks and local businesses. In Georgia this year, we will support the development of tourism plans for the Borjomi and Javakheti Protected Areas, in collabora-tion with the Agency of Protected Arteas. We are also working with them and the private sector to fi nance and support the development of tourism infrastructure, products and services in the parks.

ARE THERE ANY PLACES IN GEORGIA THAT HAVE REALLY TAKEN YOUR BREATH AWAY DURING A VISIT? I lived for a number of years in Azerbai-jan managing a regional project and so I had the opportunity to travel through-out the South Caucasus. Besides the legendary hospitality of people, the thing that struck me most was the diversity of landscapes, climatic zones and colors – from the rugged red mountains in Gni-shik (Armenia), to the green wetlands and arid spaces in Shirvan (Azerbaijan), to the sub-tropical magic of Mtirala (Georgia). I cannot wait to get back to the Caucasus and discover more of the natural beauty there, and lead efforts to ensure that others have access to it for generations to come. In terms of a par-ticular place in Georgia – I can recom-mend just taking out a map, closing your eyes and putting your fi nger down some-where! Wherever you end up will be unforgettable.

Cover photo landscape (Lagodekhi Protected Area) by: Roman Tolordava-Phototherapy

Just take out a map, close your eyes and put your fi nger down somewhere! Wherever you end up will be unforgettable

Developing Ecotourism in Georgia’s Protected Areas: the Caucasus Nature Fund Welcomes New Director

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 13SOCIETY

BY MERI TALIASHVILI

Thomas O. Melia, US Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia had his fi rst

visit to Georgia this week, in the frames of which he traveled to Gori and visited the AgroKartli Farmer’s Service Center and CAMPA juice processing enterprise.

In Gori, Mr. Melia and USAID’s Cau-casus Mission Director, Douglas H. Ball, met benefi ciaries of USAID at the AgroKartli Center and attended train-ing held for local farmers on ‘Principles of Intensive Cultivation of Fruit Orchards’ that aimed at enhancing their knowledge on ensuring a better harvest and building richer agriculture.

“The US government and USAID have

USAID’s Melia Meets Gori Benefi ciaries

been helping farmers and businessmen to modernize their agricultural tech-nique and improve marketing abilities to provide reliable income and reliable jobs for people in the community. As we help those people, we direct the Georgian market to Western audiences,” Melia said.

AgroKartli fosters agriculture devel-opment on the administrative demarca-tion line in Gori and South Ossetia vil-lages.

Mariam Kandrolashvili, one of the benefi ciaries, sets high hopes on USAID in terms of agriculture development.

“My fi eld is agriculture and I’m very interested in its development. USAID promised to help us to grow healthier products that can be good for export to Europe. But for me, it’s more important to sell them here fi rst,” Kandrolashvili told GEORGIA TODAY.

AgroKartli is a Farmer’s Service Center

supporting the fi ve-year USD 19.5 mil-lion USAID project of ‘Restoring Effi -ciency to Agriculture Production.’ The Center focuses on rural employment, increasing revenues, farm investment and assisting agribusiness technically.

CAMPA, one of the leading juice pro-cessing enterprises in Georgia, has been in full and successful operation since 2008. With the help of the USAID ‘Restoring Effi ciency to Agriculture Production’ project, the enterprise increased production, adding sea-buck-thorn and barberry juice to its line of production.

Thomas Melia, with the US delega-tion, highlighted bilateral cooperation in developing agriculture, intellectual property rights, energy security, inno-vation, and entrepreneurship, as well as assistance in implementing economic reforms and Georgia’s Deep and Com-prehensive Free Trade Agreement.

BY MERI TALIASHVILI

Always up for fi nding some-thing to surprise us, for the 2016 spring season Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, Tbilisi is offering us a

number of novelties, amongst which is the long-awaited Iveria Terrace. On walking into the Iveria Terrace, on the second fl oor of Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, one immediately notices the cozy modern design and the fabulous views over the Georgian capital. The back-ground music is a perfect accompani-ment to the renewed menu- it was cer-tainly hard for me to choose from the tempting choice of sumptuous Georgian,

Spring into Springtime at the Revamped Iveria Terrace

Italian, and Asian dishes! In addition to this, the Iveria Terrace seems like an ideal place to organize any kind of event, and on Saturdays the in-house DJ pro-vides the right vibe to get the weekly city stresses out of your system! What’s more, catering to all work-and leisure- schedules, the Iveria Terrace kitchen works 24/7.

This month will also see the opening of the outdoor pool- though the latest news there is still under wraps!

From my experience, Radisson Blu personnel always pay attention to detail and strive to excel in customer service- from a smile to really making a positive difference to your day. Take my advice and get into the warmth and health of a new spring season at Radisson Blu Ive-ria Hotel’s Iveria Terrace.

Thomas O. Melia, US Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia had his fi rst visit to Georgia this week

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 20161414 SOCIETY

BY MERI TALIASHVILI

With the fi nancial sup-port of the Victory Partnership Alliance (VPA), a delegation of American veterans

and their family members paid a visit to Georgia from April 9th to April 16th to help Georgian wounded heroes and to demonstrate support for their sacrifi ces. Chief Warrant Offi cer 5 Ken Ley, a com-bat veteran from Vietnam with decades of service in the US Army, and retired US Army Colonel Joe Williams, a com-bat veteran who serves on the Board of Directors of the United Service Organ-ization (USO) Northwest, were part of the delegation.

The visit included activities with wounded soldiers and disabled veterans, engagements with partner organizations, and visits to various points of interest around Georgia.

Sean Mulcahey, VPA Founder and CEO, was hosted along with the American delegation and representatives of the State Agency for Veteran Affairs par-ticipated with their Deputy Director, at the Chiatura Municipal Hall, Chiatura town, Imereti region. Zedazeni Brewery provided the disabled soldiers with beer.

“It was an honor for me to participate

VPA Invites American Veterans to Boost Moral of Georgian Ex-Soldiers

in this event. Georgia is a great friend of the United States. Meeting with these heroes is something I’ll remember for a long time. In addition to the wounded veterans, I’m also grateful for the sup-port of the municipal government and the State Agency for Veterans Affairs,” Chief Warrant Offi cer Ken Ley told GEORGIA TODAY.

Mzia Lezhava, the founder of a private school in Chiatura called ‘Nilemi Ltd.’ received huge thanks from Sean for help-ing to organize the event with the munic-ipal government. “Mzia is a great exam-ple of Georgia’s commitment to helping vulnerable people, especially disabled heroes. Without her support, we could not have held this successful event,” Sean said

“This partnership event is a good exam-ple of how Georgian society can come

together to make a positive impact on wounded veterans,” Sean Mulcahey told GEORGIA TODAY. “With the support and contributions of Zedazeni Brewery, the Chiatura Municipal Government, and State Agency for Veterans Affairs, we were able to demonstrate the grati-tude of Georgian society for the sacrifi ces of these heroes and to learn about their challenges.”

VPA is an independent non-profi t organization registered in Georgia to advocate and conduct activities to sup-port wounded Georgian soldiers and their families. The organization is com-mitted to honoring the sacrifi ces of Georgia’s wounded heroes, helping to enrich their lives and to assist them with the challenging task of reintegrating back into society as productive, proud citizens of Georgia.

U.S. Army Colonel Joe Williams, Chief Warrant Offi cer Ken Ley and Sean Mulcahey VPA Founder and CEO

BY MERI TALIASHVILI

Lincoln Mitchell, writer, prac-titioner of democracy promo-tion, scholar and the current national political correspond-ent of New York Observer,

was in Tbilisi this week to present his new book The Democracy Promotion Paradox, at Prospero’s Books&Caliban’s Cofeehouse. Representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce, Geor-gian youth and a variety of public fi gures attended the event.

In the book, Mitchell examines the future of democracy promotion in the context of evolv-ing US domestic policy and politics in a changed global environment where the US is no longer the hegemon. He also provides an overview of the origins of US democ-racy promotion, analyz-ing its development and evolution and discussing how it came to be an unques-tioned assumption at the heart of US foreign policy. Mitchel give us bureaucratic logic that underlies democracy promotion and offers impor-tant insight into how it can be adopted

The Democracy Promotion Paradox Book Presentation

to remain affective. “American Democracy Promotion has

been getting much more focus here in Georgia,” Lincoln Mitchell told GEOR-GIA TODAY. “American organizations have infl uence here and American and Georgian local NGOs are very signifi -cant. All that the US has done in Georgia in the last twenty years is to a global standard and Georgia’s been pretty open to American efforts to promote democ-racy. It’s been a good environment here for democracy promotion- not an easy mission to take on.”

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 15SOCIETY

BY TONY HANMER

It’s been that kind of a period (about the last ten days) in the village, so much has hap-pened, so much change. Not one big thing, but many things which add up to what feels like a lifetime of experiences.

There was a wedding, a funeral, and an 80th birthday, for example; and tomorrow, as I write this, either a 99th or a 100th birthday is happening: she says the latter, her documents say the former. It’s risky to wait until a year from now for her full interview and portrait, though, so I might do those soon, in case... well, you know.

The wedding: we were assured that the bride and groom would appear at the untraditionally early hour of about six p.m., so we trudged up the road to where the splendid big marquee was decorated, tables and benches for about 150 guests already groaning with food and anticipation of those to be seated. We were given a morsel to eat in a small off-room, where there was a stove burning, to keep warm in the still-cool Svan spring evening, and chatted with a few other early arrivers while we all waited.

At about nine p.m., though, we gave up and returned home; and they showed up about an hour later (still quite early for a wedding by Svan stand-ards). I’ve experienced midnight starts to these things, and on a school night to boot, which is just not on. I’m not a night-owl anyway. At least the funerals start and fi nish while it’s still not yet night-time!

Speaking of which, she was 82 years old and had already lost a husband and two sons, the last son less than a year ago, and now was giving up. After a stroke and a slip into coma-like conditions, she lingered for some weeks with no food, a few days unable to take teaspoons of water, and then was gone, after a full but not un-traumatic life. The day offered rain on and off, making the procession with her open coffi n to the grave rather a muddy affair, but for the feast afterwards there was again a tent, so we kept dry thus. The weather report was quite accurate, so they had taken no chances. A wet, or snowed-on, outdoor feast is no laughing matter; I have experienced the latter in a February, and the only good thing about it is that it’s made mercifully short. The feast, being in the Lenten period, was a “fasting” one, so, no milk products or meat dishes. Still all delicious, though.

The days of funeral preparations made me wish for the village to make an investment towards its own well-being. The men, as usual here, made all the table and bench legs from scratch, from newly cut small trees and logs. If only we had a set, even

The Week in Short: Etseri, Svaneti

of rebar, of folding legs attached to their planks! To spend the money and time to do this once, and then not lend it out (apparently one such set already disappeared gradually into the surrounding vil-lages). They do have the necessary amounts of crockery and cutlery for these occasions, in boxes, so why not these additions too? It just takes some-one to do it, to decide.

I didn’t bother going to a recent village meeting about how to spend a large amount of money (for us) in local infrastructure projects. I went to one last year, and it was a circus of old recriminations dragged up and paraded, no one prepared to listen to others, aside from airing these grievances, at louder and louder volumes, to the benefi t of none. Svans, you seem to be each other’s own worst enemies, sorry to say.

The 80th birthday belonged to one of my col-leagues at school; and he’s not even the oldest teacher among us, that honor going to a lady of about 83. He invited all of us to his home for the feast, and a good one it was. He’s still going strong, and we all wish him many healthy, happy years.

To top it all off, a crew of three from Rustavi 2 TV channel came to fi lm me and some of those around me, today at home, tomorrow at Becho school. So, yes, it’s been full and busy. Feels like spring, really.

Tony Hanmer runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1300 members, atwww.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

It’s been a period in the village where so much has happened, so much has changed. Not one big thing, but many things which add up to what feels like a lifetime of experiences.

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 201616 CULTURE

Contact: www.edelbrand.ge

Phone: 599 461908

BY MAKA LOMADZE

Modern times require new rules and standards. The Georgian fi lm phe-nomenon was very strong and distinguished during Soviet times, when the advantage came in the

funding it got. These days, producing and manage-ment skills are paramount. GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Nikoloz Apriashvili, a Producer and an MBA student at the European School of Manage-ment and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin, Germany, who has a special interest in the Georgian movie industry and its future.

PRODUCERS ARE NOT BORN. WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND HERE IN GEORGIA AND HOW DID PRODUCING COME TO YOUR LIFE? As a child I always had a special interest towards moving pictures which gradually grew into a love of movies. There wasn’t much chance to get hands-on experience in the fi lmmaking industry in Geor-gia of the 2000s, so I decided to join Sarke Studio – a boutique advertising company which soon turned into the market leader and, by the end of the decade, had dealt with most corporate clients in Georgia. While the advertising business serves a different goal, it still has many things in common with fi lm production. Luckily, all the partners at Sarke share an affection for movies, and at some point we decided to diversify our business and within the company started a fi lm production divi-sion. Using our video production experience and following a particular business strategy, we were able to fund and shoot a locally produced debut feature fi lm and distribute it the same year to more

Inside the Mind of a Georgian Producer Living in Berlin

than 30 countries throughout the world.

IS PRODUCING MORE A MANAGERIAL OR CREATIVE FIELD? WHAT INFLUENCED YOU TO STUDY MANAGEMENT? Perhaps fi lmmaking is the most collaborative form of art. For a movie to be successful, it needs layers of creative and managerial input and there’s almost no producer solely focused on just planning and executing the project. The same goes for me – I’ve taken part in script-writing, designing the fi lm sets, as well as budgeting and scheduling the movies. But even though I was profi cient at my job, I still felt that I needed a global perspective and a differ-ent outlook on the industry – that’s when I decided to join ESMT and its diverse class with 65 interna-tional students from 40 different countries. Study-ing here is a truly transformative experience and my expectations, particularly gaining global lead-ership skills, have been fully met.

YOU’VE BEEN EXPOSED TO A COMPLETELY NEW WORLD OF BERLIN - FULL OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND A MULTI-CULTURAL ATMOSPHERE WHERE IDEAS ARE TESTED AND TRANSFORMED. Defi nitely, living in Berlin means being bombarded with new ideas 24/7. Its multicultural environment, brilliant art scene, and inherent free spirit create a melting pot where one’s perspective on things changes really fast. One might discover that the idea he or she thought was original has either already been turned into a fully operating startup or has been tweaked and upgraded in a way that one might consider going back and reconsidering his or her own business idea, and that’s what I believe is the natural advantage of Berlin- provid-ing access to a great network.

Continued on page 17

Nikoloz Apriashvili, a Producer and an MBA student at the European School of Management and Technology

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 17

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Inside the Mind of a Georgian Producer Living in BerlinESMT EMPHASIZES TECHNOLOGY IN THE BUSINESS WORLD. HOW DOES IT LINK WITH PRODUCTION? An MBA education, while regarded as a universal and solid business educa-tion in the world, differs from school to school and has different ‘fl avors’ depending on the emphasis of the par-ticular institution. ESMT’s tech empha-sis was one of the primary reasons for coming here, along with Berlin’s unique start-up scene. The startup on which I’m currently working marries the enter-tainment and tech worlds and will make use of wide range of subjects taught at the school.

TELL US ABOUT ANY PRIZES OR NOMINATIONS OUR FILMS HAVE BEEN AWARDED. Sarke Studio opened in 2011 and to date has produced or co-produced eight fea-ture fi lms and a TV series. One of the major successes of the company was the

production of ‘The Search’, which was directed by the Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius. A massive USD 26million project was co-produced in Georgia over more than 9 months and was nominated for various fi lm festivals, including Cannes Film Festival’s Sélection Offi cielle.

YOU ALSO PARTICIPATED IN ‘LANDMINE GOES CLICK’ – ARE YOU AN ACTOR TOO? ‘Landmine Goes Click’ is Sarke’s latest thriller-drama which has also been nominated for various awards at 11 fi lm festivals. As an amateur actor, I voiced one of the characters in the movie and, quite surprisingly, enjoyed the process.

YOU ARE GRADUATING THIS YEAR. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?Post-MBA, I intend to create a platform that will deliver an irreplicable virtual cinema experience. The system accom-modates end-users regardless of their geolocation and immerses them in a virtual cinema auditorium using virtual

reality devices. With social networking, fi lm-suggestion and real-time user inter-action modules, the platform refl ects the next big thing in entertainment - virtual reality - and emphasizes the appeal of an interactive movie-going experience between groups of people. The irrepli-cability of the experience can substan-tially bring down the piracy rate for small fi lm businesses and help them realize a profi t even with a limited movie cata-logue.

In line with the platform mentioned above, I plan to create a global crowd-funding website designed specifi cally for fi lmmakers. The resource will con-nect them with a potential audience and help with two hardest tasks in the busi-ness – fi lm funding and distribution.

Additionally, in the long run, I want to introduce Georgia as one of the fi lming destinations in Eastern Europe. With a movie tax credit already enacted, I plan to create strategic business partnerships with Western fi lm producers and, through Sarke, provide affordable production services.

Continued from page 16

The Georgian State Chamber Choir also participated in the recent Festival

BY MAKA LOMADZE

The 6th Tbilisi International Festival of Choral Music took place from April 2 to April 12. The closing gala on the last day was

extremely multicolored, enriched as it was with different local choirs, includ-ing some from the Georgian regions. The main discovery was the world-famous Hungarian Girls’ Choir ‘Angelica,’ who fully justifi ed their name and, like angels, led gave us a truly heavenly experience.

Shortly after the organizers opened the evening, the fl oor was given to Hungar-ian Ambassador, Sandor Szabo: “We are very glad that the Tbilisi International Choral Music Festival gives a platform for outstanding foreign choirs, like the ‘Angelica’ girls’ choir from Budapest. It’s heart-warming to see how choral music brings people together from all over the world and strengthens the cultural coop-

Hungarian Angels in Harmony at Tbilisi Conservatory

eration between our nations.” The fi rst Hungarian diplomat went on

to speak of the choir’s international suc-cess story over the last two decades – their tours in North and South America, Europe and he Far East. “Among many others, they sang in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, the Saint Michael’s Cathedral in Brussels and in the European Parliament.” The ambassador also referred to their repertoire, which reportedly includes pieces of the greatest Hungarian compos-ers, Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók and Ferenc Liszt. “In 2015 and 2016 in Hungary we celebrate and commemorate the birth and the passing away of Béla Bartók, whose work also had a signifi cant impact on Georgian classical music.”

Archil Ushveridze, Artistic Director of the Festival, told GEORGIA TODAY, “Every year, we try to make it multi-colored in terms of genre, as well as to cover repertoires of different countries to give our audience a new and varied experience. This year, the Hungarian

Girls’ Choir performed the Hungarian choral music of the 20th and 21st centu-ries. One of our main aims is to boost development of the performing level of choral music as well as the choral com-positional school. This festival has many bright examples of it.”

We asked Zsuzsanna Graf, Conductor of the Angelica Girls’ Choir to comment. “I was in Georgia last year, and that is when I fell in love with Georgian music. Some Georgian professors have already suggested we work on Georgian musical pieces. We will take them home and perform them,” she said.

Zviad Bolkvadze, Georgian conductor and composer, member of the Festival Board, told us: “The festival is develop-ing - instead of one foreign choir, we had three this year. It is a great stimulus for Georgian musicians to listen to foreign troupes and get acquainted with differ-ent musical cultures. This tradition existed in Georgia and was stopped tem-porarily. Let’s hope that the festival will gain an even larger scale.”

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 201618 CULTURE

WHAT’S ON IN TBILISIEDDIE THE EAGLEDirected by Dexter FletcherGenre: Biography, Comedy, DramaCast: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Tom CostelloLanguage: RussianStart time: 12:00, 14:30, 19:30Ticket price: 8-14 Lari

MUSEUM

GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM

SIMON JANASHIA MUSEUMAddress: 4 Rustaveli Ave.Telephone: 2 99 80 22, 2 93 48 21www.museum.ge

THE TRAVELING MUSEUM OF THE CAUCASUS

THE PERMANENT EXHIBITION NUMISMATIC TREASURY

SHALVA AMIRANASHVILI MUSEUM OF ART

Address: 1 Lado Gudiashvili St. Telephone: 2 99 99 09www.museum.ge

April 20 – May 1The exhibition TREE OF LIFEILLUSTRATIONS OF CANONICAL TEXTS

MUSEUM OF SOVIET OCCUPATION

Address: 3 Sh. Rustaveli Ave.

April 20 – May 1Georgian National Museum and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tbilisi present photo exhibition WITHDRAWAL OF SOVIET TROOPS FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIAby Czech photographer Karel Cudlín

GALLERY

THE NATIONAL GALLERYAddress: 11 Rustaveli Ave.www.museum.ge

THEATRE

GRIBOEDOVI THEATREAddress: 2 Rustaveli Ave.Telephone: 2 93 43 36

April 15HANGER-ONIvan TurgenevDirected by Nugzar LortkipanidzeComedyLanguage: RussianStart time: 18:00Ticket price: 5 Lari

April 16THE MARRIAGENikolay GogolDirected by Avtandil Varsimashvili Language: RussianStart time: 18:00Ticket price: 5 Lari

April 17SCARLET SAILAlexander GrinDirected by Avtandil VarsimashviliLanguage: RussianStart time: 12:00Ticket price: 5 Lari

April 17CASTINGDirected by Nika KvizhinadzeLanguage: RussianStart time: 18:00Ticket price: 5 Lari

MOVEMENT THEATREAddress: 182, Aghmashenebeli Ave., Mushthaid parkTelephone: 599 555 260

April 15, 16MATRIARCHYDirected by Kakha BakuradzeStart time: 20:00Ticket price: 15 Lari

April 17RECITATIVE IN THE CITYParticipants: Kakha Bakuradze,Sandro Nikoladze,

Ana Kordzaia-Samadasvili, Irakli MenagarishviliStart time: 21:00

ILIAUNI THEATREAddress: 32 a Chavchavadze Ave. Telephone: 2 29 47 15

April 16LES FOURBERIES DE SCAPINMolierDirected by Goga KachibaiaEnglish SubtitlesStart time: 20:00Ticket price: 7 Lari

CIRCUSAddress: 1 The Heroes Sq. Telephone: 2 98 58 61 www.krakatuk.eu

April 16, 17TRAINED LEOPARD SHOWStart time: 13:00, 17:00Ticket price: From 10 Lari

CINEMA

AMIRANI CINEMAAddress: 36 Kostava St.Telephone: 2 99 99 55www.kinoafi sha.ge

Every Wednesday ticket price: 5 Lari

April 15-21

SON OF SAULDirected by László NemesGenre: Drama, Thriller, WarCast: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs RechnEnglish SubtitlesStart time: 19:30Language: RussianStart time: 22:15Ticket price: 13-14 Lari THE HUNTSMAN: WINTERS WARDirected by Cedric Nicolas-TroyanGenre: Action, Adventure, DramaCast: Sam Clafl in, Chris Hemsworth, Emily BluntLanguage: Russian

Start time: 12:00, 17:00, 14:15, 19:30, 22:00Ticket price: 8-14 Lari

HIGH-RISEDirected by Ben WheatleyGenre: DramaCast: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna MillerLanguage: RussianStart time: 19:15, 22:00Ticket price: 13-14 Lari

COLONIADirected by Florian GallenbergerGenre: Drama, History, RomanceCast: Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl, Michael NyqvistLanguage: RussianStart time: 14:30Ticket price: 10-11 Lari

RUSTAVELI CINEMAAddress: 5 Rustaveli Ave.Telephone: 2 55 50 00www.kinoafi sha.ge

Every Wednesday ticket price: 5 Lari

April 15-21

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTERS WAR(Info Above)Start time: 14:45, 17:20, 20:00, 22:30Ticket price: 9-14 Lari

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICEDirected by Zack SnyderGenre: Action, Adventure, FantasyCast: Ben Affl eck, Henry Cavill, Amy AdamsLanguage: RussianStart time: 15:45, 22:15Ticket price: 11-14 Lari

10 CLOVERFIELD LANEDirected by Dan TrachtenbergGenre: Drama, Horror, MysteryCast: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr.Language: RussianStart time: 22:30Ticket price: 13-14 Lari

PERMANENT EXHIBITIONNiko Pirosmanashvili, David Kakabadze, Lado Gudiashvili and sculptor Iakob Nikoladze

MUSIC

MOVEMENT THEATREAddress: 182, Aghmashenebeli Ave.Telephone: 599 555 260

April 19LIVE JAZZ EVENING WITH RESO KIKNADZE Start time: 21:00Free entry

April 20TANGO MILONGA TANGO LESSONS Start time: 20:00Tango lessons price: 5 Lari

TBILISI CONCERT HALLAddress: 1 Melikishvili Ave.Telephone: 99 05 99

April 21-24SPRING BOOK FAIRBOOKS AND MUSICParticipants: Rezo Kiknadze, Sophia Adamashvili, Blue Sun, The Black Marrows, Tserili (Letter), Lady Heroine, Backwarmer, Soft Eject Systems, Green Room ft. Dato Lomidze, The Window, The BearFoxOpening: 11:00

AMQARIAddress: 1 Jerusalem Str.Telephone: 599 904539, 597 817281

April 16SVANSIKH – LIVEStart time: 23:00Ticket price: 20 Lari

OTIUMAddress: Turtle LakeTelephone: 592 91 91 91

April 15SALIOStart time: 21:00Ticket price: 20 Lari

GEORGIA TODAY APRIL 15 - 18, 2016 19CULTURE

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Paata Burchuladze and US Ambassador Kelly with his wife at the performance. Photo: Slow Motion

BY MAKA LOMADZE

On April 8, a solidarity concert to commemorate the victims of the recent terror attacks on France, Turkey and Belgium took

place at Rustaveli State Drama Theater. Symbolically enough, the honorary foreign guests – the band ‘Sammartini’- were from Belgium, here on a visit that had been planned much earlier. Together with the Georgian Philharmonic Orches-tra and Abkhazian State Chamber Choir, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria was performed

A Message of Universal Love & Peace: Puccini’s Messa di Gloria Premieres in Georgia

for the fi rst time in Georgia. The evening was presented by the

Yevgeny Mikeladze Georgian National Music Center, Georgian Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection and artists’ union ‘Csoncertart’ and sup-ported by the Paata Burchuladze Geor-gian Development Fund.

Paata Burchuladze, world famous opera bass singer and Head of the Georgian Development Fund, opened the soiree. “The whole world is con-cerned about the future of Mankind following the series of terror attacks that took place in France, Turkey and Belgium. Today’s concert is an event of solidarity, as each of us is obliged to fi ght against terrorism. We give our condolences to the families of the vic-tims. We must unite to defeat this wickedness, and more importantly, this maliciousness should be beaten by kindness. It is very symbolic that today we are hosting a band from Belgium, which, in spite of the obstacles they had in getting here, still came to Geor-gia to participate in this solidarity event.”

The concert was opened by the inter-mezzo from Mascagni’s ‘Village Hon-esty’ followed by Mozart’s Concerto No. 23. The main event – Puccini’s Messa di Gloria – was chosen as the culmination of the concert.

Among the guests were representa-tives of the Diplomatic Corps. H.E. Mr Ian Kelly, Ambassador Extraordinary

BY NICHOLAS WALLER

Georgia’s Shotokan Karate team will return home from the 2016 International Cup in Orakiva, Israel with six gold medals and one silver

to add to this year’s awards.The under-20 youth squad fi nished fi rst

in the competition with three of its com-petitors capturing gold.

Andria Karbaia from the 11-12 year-old squad, Irakli Khochava for the 13-14 year-old age bracket, 15-16 year-0ld

Georgian Shotokan Karate Team Wins Big Israel

competitor Tengiz Mazmishvili and Levan Geldiashvili in the adult group all won gold in the kumite fi ghting cat-egory.

“My team and I were very happy with the results. Our success comes after we won the championship in Tehran this past February with two gold and silver medals”, Mzechabuk Makharadze told GEORGIA TODAY.

The Georgian Shotokan Karate Fed-eration was founded in 2005 and has participated in International tournaments around the world.

The federation will play host to the Caucasus Cup on May 29 in Tbilisi.

and Plenipotentiary of the USA, told GEORGIA TODAY, “It is a great honor for me to be here. I believe this is the kind of event that can help us all to come together after terrible incidents. Music brings hearts and souls together.”

Deputy Italian Ambassador, Stefano Crescenzi, also made a public speech: “It is always a very important occasion when a piece of Italian music is played for the fi rst time in another country. And I’m particularly proud because this time it comes from a prominent Italian musician like Puccini, someone who contributed to spreading through-out the world not only Italian music, Italian language and Italian opera, but was also someone who contributed to spreading universal values and to bring-ing inside of his works various cultures, from east to west, and to promoting universal values like love, fraternity and peace; universal values that must be pursued, overcoming any diffi cul-ties or obstacles.” He went on to high-light that in the composing of his music, Puccini was thinking about the obsta-cles of his own time, but that in fact his work can be translated into present reality just as easily: a reality in which we face terrorism, “A threat that can-not be addressed by each of us alone, but that we can overcome together. To do that we must be united and share the same universal values that Puccini himself put at the center of his works. And to come together, music is a per-fect tool for mutual understanding that unites people, cultures and gives us more strength. Honoring the victims of all terroristic acts throughout the world tonight, I hope that Puccini’s music will continue to inspire us to pursue the universal values that make the world a better place.”

Terrorism is a threat that cannot be addressed by each of us alone, but that we can overcome together