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Keeping an eye on the Tbilisi demonstrations

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Fellow Frontline Club blogger Onnik Krikorian has produced a great round up of online and social media coverage of the first day of demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia.

April 9 is a date firmly etched in the memory of many Georgians. Any demonstration on the anniversary of the 1989 Soviet crack down would always bring out people, whether supporters of the opposition or people just curious to see what was going on.

For perhaps more of a grassroots perspective I'll be keeping my eye on the blog that Georgian journalism students at GIPA are producing that Onnik pointed out.

The Georgian Young Lawyers Association is another independent group that's useful to get a picture of what's happening between demonstrators and police/security services. I bumped into the chairperson Tamar Khidasheli late last night outside the Georgian parliament.

Her group has monitors observing the demonstrations. Here's what she had to say.

3 Comments

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Guy Degen | April 9, 2009 10:02 PM | Reply

And another thing... It would be remiss of me not say it was good to finally meet Al Jazeera Tbilisi correspondent and Club blogger Matthew Collin this week!

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Mr Graham Holliday | April 9, 2009 10:07 PM | Reply

So you guys met... Glad it worked out :) And thanks for a fantastic report here Guy. really gets you right on the scene. Very well done. Cheers.

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Onnik Krikorian | April 9, 2009 10:55 PM | Reply

I kind of feel left out if not so far away... :-(

Hope both of you guys will make it down to Yerevan for the May municipal elections.

Not the same as parliamentary, presidential or otherwise, but potentially something to test the government-opposition resolve a little over a year since the 2008 presidential election.

Worth keeping an eye on...

Besides, I like the idea of a Frontline Club beer session :-)

What do you think?