In September 2023 I was in Georgia for the first time. Actually, it was more of a coincidence. A week before departure, a fellow student asked me if I would like to take part in the excursion in her place. For me it was more of a request than a question. Previously, my travel destinations were limited to Northern Europe with a few exceptions and I hadn‘t really thought about much else until then. Accordingly, I knew little about Georgia at that time. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had the 2008 Caucasus War, but I hadn‘t actually heard much else about this country. The past words and the following pages are based on both, the media reports of the past weeks and chat histories with friends from Georgia who were there at the protests. As a result of this and the short time to create it, this printed matter does not claim journalistic objectivity or completeness but is rather seen as a portrait of my own impressions as well as the emotions and views of some of the people living there. Despite this, or perhaps precisely because of this, I hope that I can play a small part in preventing Georgia from being forgotten and in encouraging interested people to form their own opinion instead of making hasty judgments. Felix Warsawa, May 2024
If you also look at Russia‘s attack on Ukraine and the associated developments, very few people would probably come up with the idea of traveling to former Soviet countries. Added to this was the almost natural distrust of the former Eastern Bloc, which people in the western part of Europe seem to have been born with. For many people, the thought process here seems relatively simple. When former Soviet republics are mentioned, the majority of people seem to immediately think of Russia and project the actions of the regime there onto the other states and, even worse, the people living there. This creates a completely distorted image that portrays these countries as a completely foreign world. Of course, breaking this down in such a simple way is never a solution and yet I personally thought similarly before, even if not completely, but in parts.
In the case of Georgia, I learned that all of this was completely unjustified. When I was in Tbilisi for the first time, all of these expectations were completely missing. I was much more captivated by the life of this city. There was and still is so much to explore. I have had many pleasant encounters while traveling, whether by chance or planned, but the warmth and hospitality in Georgia has surpassed all of this. In spring 2024 I decided to travel there alone again to stay longer and pursue my passion, photography. I already knew two students from Tbilisi from the last excursion, met them both again and made many other good acquaintances.
What surprised me on my first visit, perhaps due to a lack of information, is the western orientation of the population. In addition to the Georgian flag, the flag of the European Union can also be seen in many public places. Also at the parliament building. Large banners of both flags hung alternately between the pillars of the main entrance on Shota Rustaveli Avenue. Below it was written #ევროპისკენ, in English #toeurope. Georgia has officially been a candidate for EU membership since December 14, 2023.
However, I find it worrying that these flags are no longer hanging there.
Instead, the Georgian government passed a law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” on May 14, 2024. This is intended to force organizations that receive at least 20 percent of their funding from abroad to disclose their finances and register. This affects pretty much everyone who supports a pro-European course and promotes democracy.
A similar law on “foreign agents” exists in Russia since 2012 and is being abused to silence those organizations.
This is exactly the concern of the Georgian people, who by a large majority want to further break away from Russia and see their future in Europe.
Despite weeks of mass protests, the leading party „Georgian Dream“ ignored the voices of the people and suppressed them using water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets and other arbitrary violence.
21.04.2024
How are you doing? I‘m following the news from Georgia almost everyday for the last weeks. Is there a way to get rid of this law or is it a hopeless situation?
Thanks for keeping us in mind, I‘m not really sure what will happen, the law was supposed to be gone over three times before being decided on, but they did all three listenings in one day and took it as the protests were happening so that to me was pretty much a slap in the face telling us ‚you may stand on the streets at night, but you don‘t get the vote‘
as much as I want to be hopeful the reality of the situation is that we are people who can‘t do anything but protest against people who have the actual power and just don‘t care about what we think
the only upside is that the president is on our side, that keeps the flame alive, but yeah, it‘s rough
a lot of people are getting badly injured at protests to the point I‘m not sure they‘re worth the damage, to me my country isn‘t the land, it is the people, what‘s freedom to a dead dad man?
went on a little rant here my bad
04.05.2024
How went the last days?
it‘s been getting tense on both sides, the rubber bullets damaged a lot of people and one protester even lost an eye I believe..
fortunately I haven‘t gotten caught in that crossfire yet, but yeah it‘s getting dangerous
yesterday was relatively mild, there were a lot of us but less news about people being assaulted by the swat teams
some people did get arrested for allegedly cussing at swat teams, but that‘s better than losing an eye, so..
Does the police attack random people?
oh yeah absolutely, none of the protesters are being aggressive, we‘re just chanting ‚no to russian law‘ and ‚glory to georgia‘ and so on and they throw choking gas, tear gas, rubber bullets, high pressure water, foam, some just straight up beat protesters up
the cops are shameless pigs
12.05.2024
How many people have been there? German news say ten thousands, but people are saying around 200.000
the news outlets are trying to claim there are less people then there actually are to make it look like not many of us are against the law
200k actually sounds plausable
probably at least near 100k
So on Tuesday evening we‘ll know more?
probably, hopefully it‘ll all be good news
I‘ll keep my fingers crossed for all of you. Are there elections this year as well?
yes there are, not really any good choices but there are choices none the less
Even after the law was passed, Georgians continue to protest for their future and freedom.
Thanks to
Ani Sadunishvili
Eka Khomeriki
Dilara Selle
Klaus Neuburg
photos | introduction | text | layout
Felix Warsawa