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Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 22 2014
Baku Olympics and criticism of "professional experts"
21 August 2014 - 10:25am
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Considering publications of the Azerbaijani mass media, Baku is
indignant at attempts by some Georgian experts and journalists to
associate the holding of the 2015 European Olympic Games with "Leila
Yunus's case." Some of them even call for a boycott or cancellation of
the Games by the International Olympic Committee.
Next year Tbilisi also will hold an important sporting event - the
Youth Olympic Festival, which is often called "the Youth Olympics."
The Georgian capital won the right in 2010 after tough competition
with other European capitals. Despite serious problems with human
rights in Georgia, nobody called for a boycott, including experts of
international human rights organizations.
One of the most devoted supporters of boycotting the 2015 Baku
Olympics is a reporter on the South Caucasus countries of Human Rights
Watch, Georgy Gogia. In general he is not a well-known expert in the
country. He is rarely to be seen on local TV, Tbilisi newspapers and
information agencies don't interview him much. His media activity
could be seen during the dreadful story of tortures of prisoners,
which led to the change of power in 2012.
However, it should be noted that Gogia criticizes not only Azerbaijan,
but also Armenia and Georgia for their situations with human rights.
For example, he criticizes the Georgian authorities for violation of
equal rights of religions, rights of sexual minorities, and for
interference of special services in the private lives of citizens.
Armenia is criticized for incidents of excessive use of force by the
police.
In one of his interviews, Georgy Gogia admitted that in some aspects
of following human rights Azerbaijan is better than Georgia. For
example, according to him, the maximum term of administrative arrest
in Azerbaijan is 15 days, while in Georgia it is 90!
But this doesn't comfort Azerbaijan. Mr. Gogia and his colleagues
don't call for a boycott of the 2015 Tbilisi Youth Olympics, despite
human rights problems in their country. So this phenomenon could
influence Azerbaijani-Georgian relations, which seemed to be perfect.
Before joining Human Rights Watch, Georgy Gogia worked as a senior
analyst of the International Crisis Group on conflicts in the South
Caucasus over Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. He
graduated from the Central European University and is now working at
Ilya Tbilisi University.
Of course an expert of HRW is paid for criticism. Human Rights Watch
is one of the mechanisms of providing a general strategy of the West
on spreading its values and the education of elites which are loyal to
their values. However, it is difficult to say that calling for a
boycott of the Olympics is required by the HRW charter. Maybe the
organization is practicing such politicization of sporting and
cultural events.
The main thing is that officials of Georgia or sporting officials and
athletes have nothing in common with the urging of boycotting the Baku
Games. Everybody is interested in successfully holding both the Youth
Olympics in Tbilisi and the European Games in Baku. Vestnik Kavkaza
was told about it by all structures: from the state office of Irakly
Garibashvili's government and the presidential administration of
Georgy Margvelashvili to the National Olympic Committee and the
Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs.
All of them told Vestnik Kavkaza that they don't know Gogia; Georgia
supports Baku in holding the Olympics, and we hope that our
Azerbaijani friends will support Tbilisi in holding the Youth
International Festival.
And nobody believes that HRW is able to worsen relations between
Georgia and Azerbaijan.
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/59120.html
From: A. Papazian
Aug 22 2014
Baku Olympics and criticism of "professional experts"
21 August 2014 - 10:25am
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Considering publications of the Azerbaijani mass media, Baku is
indignant at attempts by some Georgian experts and journalists to
associate the holding of the 2015 European Olympic Games with "Leila
Yunus's case." Some of them even call for a boycott or cancellation of
the Games by the International Olympic Committee.
Next year Tbilisi also will hold an important sporting event - the
Youth Olympic Festival, which is often called "the Youth Olympics."
The Georgian capital won the right in 2010 after tough competition
with other European capitals. Despite serious problems with human
rights in Georgia, nobody called for a boycott, including experts of
international human rights organizations.
One of the most devoted supporters of boycotting the 2015 Baku
Olympics is a reporter on the South Caucasus countries of Human Rights
Watch, Georgy Gogia. In general he is not a well-known expert in the
country. He is rarely to be seen on local TV, Tbilisi newspapers and
information agencies don't interview him much. His media activity
could be seen during the dreadful story of tortures of prisoners,
which led to the change of power in 2012.
However, it should be noted that Gogia criticizes not only Azerbaijan,
but also Armenia and Georgia for their situations with human rights.
For example, he criticizes the Georgian authorities for violation of
equal rights of religions, rights of sexual minorities, and for
interference of special services in the private lives of citizens.
Armenia is criticized for incidents of excessive use of force by the
police.
In one of his interviews, Georgy Gogia admitted that in some aspects
of following human rights Azerbaijan is better than Georgia. For
example, according to him, the maximum term of administrative arrest
in Azerbaijan is 15 days, while in Georgia it is 90!
But this doesn't comfort Azerbaijan. Mr. Gogia and his colleagues
don't call for a boycott of the 2015 Tbilisi Youth Olympics, despite
human rights problems in their country. So this phenomenon could
influence Azerbaijani-Georgian relations, which seemed to be perfect.
Before joining Human Rights Watch, Georgy Gogia worked as a senior
analyst of the International Crisis Group on conflicts in the South
Caucasus over Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. He
graduated from the Central European University and is now working at
Ilya Tbilisi University.
Of course an expert of HRW is paid for criticism. Human Rights Watch
is one of the mechanisms of providing a general strategy of the West
on spreading its values and the education of elites which are loyal to
their values. However, it is difficult to say that calling for a
boycott of the Olympics is required by the HRW charter. Maybe the
organization is practicing such politicization of sporting and
cultural events.
The main thing is that officials of Georgia or sporting officials and
athletes have nothing in common with the urging of boycotting the Baku
Games. Everybody is interested in successfully holding both the Youth
Olympics in Tbilisi and the European Games in Baku. Vestnik Kavkaza
was told about it by all structures: from the state office of Irakly
Garibashvili's government and the presidential administration of
Georgy Margvelashvili to the National Olympic Committee and the
Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs.
All of them told Vestnik Kavkaza that they don't know Gogia; Georgia
supports Baku in holding the Olympics, and we hope that our
Azerbaijani friends will support Tbilisi in holding the Youth
International Festival.
And nobody believes that HRW is able to worsen relations between
Georgia and Azerbaijan.
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/politics/59120.html
From: A. Papazian