In 2012, for the first time in its 22 years of independence, Georgia witnessed the peaceful transfer of power through the ballot box. It was a significant development for the country’s ambitious democratisation agenda. However, the news of religious intolerance in the villages of Nigvziani, Tsintskharo and Chela, where there are substantial Muslim populations, and…

New Data Confirm Political Violence Targeting Women is on the Rise 28 May 2019: Women around the world are facing unprecedented levels of targeted political violence. According to new data on political violence targeting women collated by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) – in partnership with the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at…

In Russia, the new year will kick off with price increases — the value-added tax (VAT) will jump from 18 to 20 percent. Among other things, the government hopes that this will at least partially compensate for cuts made to the health and education systems. Authorities deemed these cuts necessary due to the fall of…

Twenty years ago today, Turkey announced Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan had been captured in Kenya and brought back to Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the organisation he led, had been fighting the Turkish government for 15 years, seeking national liberation for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. When the PKK was established, it was illegal in Turkey…

Reported by Hamed Kazemzadeh, Alberto Zanconato, Greg Bruno August 2019 There are several political parties in Iran, but they do not, or cannot, play an effective role in the political arena because of the Freedom of Media. As a result, the mass media, particularly newspapers and websites, have assumed a central role in the Iranian…

Orientalism & Cultural Imperialism;Edward Said’s Viewpoint By Hamed Kazemzadeh (Hkaze065@uottawa.ca)Conflict Studies ProgramSaint Paul University – University of OttawaBook Review: Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.ECS 5101: Identity – Based Conflict (Fall Semester 2018)Supervisor: Professor Enkelejda Sula Raxhimi (esraxhimi@ustpaul.ca) Published in Internal Journal of ACPCS – Winter 2019 (N.8); pp. 24-26 A. IntroductionOrientalism is…

Russia’s and the de facto authorities’ attempts to physically demarcate a boundary between the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali Region and the rest of Georgia have led to severe restrictions on freedom of movement and other human rights violations, with families separated by barbed wire, cut off their livelihoods and at risk of…