Random Thought

Having read this piece, a random thought flashed to my mind - Georgia's approach to authoritarian Azerbaijan is very similar to close German - Russian relationship. In a way, Saakashvili and his team emulate a behavior of some of the Western countries where national interests trump any concerns for human rights and democracy. 

Well, some could argue that Georgia is still on its way to democracy, and I fully agree with this statement. It is a long way full of hurdles, but one can not forget the social image Georgia had been projecting right after the rose revolution - "beacon of democracy". I have elaborated in details on this topic in my BA paper in 2007 (in Latvian). 

But here is an abstract from one of my recent posts:

More than five years ago the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, in his open letter posted by the Washington Post, called for the creation of an association of new democracies to „extend the reach of liberty in the Black Sea region and throughout wider Europe”. He urged the international community to increase a pressure on dictatorial regime in Belarus stressing that “the world can do much more to aid the Belarusian people in their quest for freedom.” Five years later the President of Georgia joined the company of the leaders of “non-free” countries like Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in congratulating “the last dictator of Europe” Aleksandr Lukashenko even before the official announcement of the election results. The elections were condemned by European countries as undemocratic but the brutal dispersal of a demonstration along with the imprisonment of presidential candidates from the opposition led to the new sanctions against Belarus. The era of romantic idealism has ended, the pragmatic realism is back. And we should not be blaming Georgian leadership for supporting freedom oppression instead first we should look at ourselves.