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Guria – slow renaissance in western Georgia

Julia Harding
Julia Harding MW
Thursday 2 January 2025
Guria Range

While political demonstrations against the governing Dream Party raged in Tbilisi in late November, Julia escaped the capital for a brief trip to rural western Georgia. Above, a persimmon tree brightens up the view from the road between the villages of Khidistavi and Amaghleba, across to the Guria Range.

The pro-democracy and pro-EU demonstrations held in Tbilisi this autumn, and the violent and repressive reaction of the government and the police, are the expression of a deep political crisis in Georgia: on one side the pro-Russia Dream Party and on the other the majority of the population, especially of the younger...