In the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, it was late July-the sweltering season when snakes sometimes appear in the wells or in the ezo courtyards that dominate the warren of the Old Town-and nobody was exactly sure what was going on.
A visiting Russian politician, Sergei Gavrilov, had been permitted to address an international legislative assembly from the Georgian Parliament floor, stoking the ire of many Tbiliseli, who saw it as the latest in a series of indignities inflicted on the Georgian people by a corrupt pro-Russian government.
Once the private residence of Georgian brandy magnate David Sarajishvili, then the home of the Soviet-era Writers' Union, the house had since 2008 been under the aegis of the Georgian Ministry of Culture.
Meantime, celebrity chef Tekuna Gachechiladze's in-house restaurant, Cafe Littera, had become a byword for the city's culinary renaissance, serving up haute reimaginings of Georgian mainstays like Black Sea mussels in chakapuli plum sauce and trout tartare topped with the yellow jonjoli flower.
On June 20, the same day that protests over Gavrilov had begun, Georgian prime minister Mamuka Bakhtadze had, without warning, signed a decree abolishing the house, which had formerly been a self-governing entity.
Local Georgian writers almost unanimously boycotted the venue, refusing to attend any of the program's readings or receptions.
A robustly funded tourism PR department promotes Georgia as the next big thing for American and British travelers, while both the Georgian Dream-dominated government and the Georgian Orthodox Church regularly issue jeremiads against the "Homosexual West.".
https://www.city-journal.org/boycott-of-the-writers-house-tbilisi
A visiting Russian politician, Sergei Gavrilov, had been permitted to address an international legislative assembly from the Georgian Parliament floor, stoking the ire of many Tbiliseli, who saw it as the latest in a series of indignities inflicted on the Georgian people by a corrupt pro-Russian government.
Once the private residence of Georgian brandy magnate David Sarajishvili, then the home of the Soviet-era Writers' Union, the house had since 2008 been under the aegis of the Georgian Ministry of Culture.
Meantime, celebrity chef Tekuna Gachechiladze's in-house restaurant, Cafe Littera, had become a byword for the city's culinary renaissance, serving up haute reimaginings of Georgian mainstays like Black Sea mussels in chakapuli plum sauce and trout tartare topped with the yellow jonjoli flower.
On June 20, the same day that protests over Gavrilov had begun, Georgian prime minister Mamuka Bakhtadze had, without warning, signed a decree abolishing the house, which had formerly been a self-governing entity.
Local Georgian writers almost unanimously boycotted the venue, refusing to attend any of the program's readings or receptions.
A robustly funded tourism PR department promotes Georgia as the next big thing for American and British travelers, while both the Georgian Dream-dominated government and the Georgian Orthodox Church regularly issue jeremiads against the "Homosexual West.".
https://www.city-journal.org/boycott-of-the-writers-house-tbilisi
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