Azerbaijani and former Georgian foreign ministers discuss bilateral ties
A telephone conversation took place between Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and former Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili.
Levan Ioseliani, whose role is to defend citizens' rights, said he and his officials had met people subjected to "the harshest treatment" by police.
"In most cases, they have received serious injuries in the face, eye and head area, which practically excludes even the possibility that the police used the necessary, proportional force against them every time," he said in a statement.
"The location, character, and degree of the injuries create a credible impression that the police use violent methods against citizens in order to punish them. Intentional, severe violence for the purpose of punishment constitutes an act of torture."
Reuters requested comment from the government and the ruling Georgian Dream party but none was immediately available.
The United States has previously condemned the use of "excessive force" against protesters. But Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has repeatedly praised the police for their response, saying they have shown greater professionalism than their counterparts in Europe and the U.S.
The country of 3.7 million people has been gripped by crisis since last Thursday, when Georgian Dream announced it was halting the EU talks and renouncing any funding from the bloc until 2028.
Georgia has been one of the former Soviet Union's most pro-Western successor states, but critics accuse the government of abandoning that course and steering it closer towards Russia. The crisis is being closely watched in Moscow, Brussels and Washington.
Demonstrators gathered on Tuesday evening for a sixth successive night of protests, with no end in sight to the standoff.
In a setback for critics of the government, Georgia's constitutional court on Tuesday declined to hear a lawsuit seeking to annul the results of an Oct. 26 parliamentary election. It was officially won by Georgian Dream with almost 54% of the vote but the opposition says it was tainted by fraud.
Prime minister Kobakhidze accused the demonstrators of trying to organise a repeat of the 2014 "Maidan" revolution that ousted a pro-Russian president in Ukraine, but said it was "already over". He said the organisers had tried to grab power and would be brought to justice.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling party who backs the protests, told Reuters this week that there was no attempted revolution, and the protests' sole demand was to re-run the election.
The crisis follows months of tensions and a souring of Georgia's relations with the West as the ruling party has pushed through laws that critics say are draconian and Russian-inspired. The government says they are necessary to defend the country's sovereignty.
Negotiations at COP29 in Baku face a critical impasse as sharp divisions over climate finance and fossil fuel commitments threaten progress.
"Come up with the video in its full form," demands the COP29 CEO, Elnur Soltanov, in an exclusive interview with AnewZ. The chief executive has broken his silence on the claims he was using his position to organise potential fossil fuel deals.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared that ties between Armenia and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) have crossed the "point of no return"
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has arrived in Uzbekistan for a two-day official visit, the Agency for the Development of Atomic Energy under the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan (Uzatom) announced.
Azerbaijan is steadfast in its efforts to transform the vision of the Rio Trio Initiative into concrete achievements, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev stated at the High-Level Opening of "From Riyadh to Belem: The Rio Trio Initiative for Public-Private Action," held during U
The next parliamentary elections in Tajikistan, including deputies for the lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon Majlisi Oli) and representatives for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, regions, cities, and districts of Dushanbe, will take place on March 2, 2025, according to the president's press
The 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from December 2 to 13, 2024.
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