Asia Journalist Association (AJA), founded in 2004, is an international journalist association that operates under the motto of “One Line of Truth through Sweat and Blood” with the goal of fair reporting, protecting freedom of the press, and developing journalism. To commemorate its 20th anniversary, AJA is sharing special feature articles that look back on the association’s 20-year history and key events within the last 20 years in AJA member countries. THE AsiaN, an outlet based on the AJA network, is reporting 10 special articles marking the 20th anniversary of the founding of AJA every Tuesday and Friday starting April 15, 2025. – Editor’s note
Contributors for AJA Central Asia : Kuban Abdymen (Kyrgyzstan), Alpomish Mashrabkhonov (Uzbekistan), Abdul Manan (Indonesia), Khatuna Chapichadze (Georgia)
TBLISSI: Georgia’s still ongoing struggle for democratic stability, preserving and restoring territorial integrity, as well as its complex relationships with the major source of the existential threat for it, – the complicated northern neighbor Russia, and the major partner – the West, that have been shaped by a few pivotal events from the last twenty years in the history of the country.
Among the key occurrences that made a crucial contribution for determining what Georgia was to become in its most transformative moment, the legacy of the Rose Revolution of November 2003 has to be mentioned in the first place.
The Rose Revolution has been regarded as a peaceful uprising, sparked by mass protests against alleged electoral fraud during parliamentary elections, which resulted in the resignation of still Soviet era leader – President Eduard Shevardnadze.
The revolution brought the new type leadership of Mikheil Saakashvili to power, who initiated significant reforms and mobilized special efforts in 2004-2012 to successfully strengthen Georgia’s ties with the Western powers and institutions, primarily the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The Russian-Georgian War in August 2008 has been another determinant for Georgia’s contemporary identity-building. The conflict that lasted five days and ended with a ceasefire brokered by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who represented the EU, broke out over the breakaway regions of the so-called South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Eventually, Russia declared the so-called South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, without the international recognition. The conflicts over the breakaway regions as well as the 2008 war that particularly strained relations between Georgia and Russia have been considered a major setback for Georgia’s NATO membership aspirations.
Georgia is experiencing significant political unrest especially since 2024, marked by mass protests. The unrest has been primarily fueled by disputes over the legitimacy of the parliamentary elections of October 2024, concerns about the ruling Georgian Dream Party’s (GDP) vague stance on the EU integration of the country, and perceived democratic backsliding.
These processes are broadly assessed as actually quite shocking as Georgia was granted the candidate status of the EU in December 2023. However, the EU accession came to a de facto halt in 2024 due to the reasons just mentioned.
Apart from that, the EU and Georgia do cooperate in the context of the Eastern Partnership. Between the two, an Association Agreement was signed on June 27, 2014 and has been in force since July 1, 2016.
The agreement introduced a preferential trade regime – the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). On February 27, 2017, the European Council adopted a regulation on visa liberalization for Georgians travelling to the EU for a stay of 90 days in any 180-day period.
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