Photographers gathered in front of the Georgian Interior Ministry office in Tbilisi at 10 p.m. on June 8 to rally against the continued detention of four Georgian photojournalists.
Georgian police initially arrested five photojournalists a day earlier: among them Irakli Gedenidze, the personal photographer for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili; his wife Natia Gedenidze, a local newspaper photographer; Shahk Aivazov, an Associated Press photojournalist; Zurab Kurtsikidze, a staff photojournalist for the European Pressphoto Agency; and Gia Abdaladze, a photographer with the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
A few hours after his detention, AP photographer Aivazov was released. The other four have since been accused of spying for "a foreign country."
The government classified the investigation as top secret, thereby closing the case to outside scrutiny. As the photographers were being interrogated inside the ministry office, their protesting colleagues demanded the transparency of the case and the release of the detainees.
Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photojournalist based in Tbilisi.
Dushanbe celebrities, Talabsho Sheikhov and his bear Maria wander Tajikistan's capital earning money by charging for photos. Sheikhov, 80, says he found Mariya, an orphan, 17 years ago in the Pamir Mountains and raised her with a bottle, sometimes offering her human milk. Today she eats Snickers and shashlik (grilled meat) and, while sometimes a little frightened by the crowds of onlookers, appears to have a special relationship with Sheikhov.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
The number of Muslim worshipers in Tajikistan is clearly growing. Here, scores of men who could not fit inside Dushanbe's main Haji Yacoub Mosque during Friday prayers brave 104-degree Fahrenheit heat (40 C) in the courtyard. The mosque rolls out "collective" prayer mats to accommodate them.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
A taxi driver and traffic inspector negotiate over an infraction on Dushanbe's main drag. Police are stationed on Rudaki Avenue approximately every 50 meters to direct traffic when a dignitary passes. Most of the time, however -- such as here, seen through the back window of the taxi -- they are free to interpret the law. (Unless, of course, one has a special number plate.)
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
Families celebrate National Unity Day at Komsomol Lake in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on June 27. The holiday marks the peace treaty that ended Tajikistan's 1992-1997 civil war.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
A worker tears down a fountain in central Dushanbe, Tajikistan. He says it will be replaced with a "better one" before Tajikistan's twentieth anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union this September.
David Trilling is EurasiaNet's Central Asia editor.
Supporters of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) - a bloc of government opposition parties - gathered in Yerevan's Liberty Square to celebrate the release of newspaper editor Nikol Pashinian and former parliament member Sasun Mikaelian. The two were serving prison sentences following the March 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. During the rally, Pashinian called for snap parliamentary and presidential elections in the Caucasus country.
Anahit Hayrapetyan is a freelance photojournalist based in Yerevan.
Heydar Aliyev, the former president of Azerbaijan, would have turned 88 years old on May 10. So naturally, the government pulled out all the stops. Like last year, thousands of flowers from 50 countries literally covered the park between the Heydar Aliyev Palace and the statue of Heydar Aliyev as two hot air balloons were inflated in front of the giant flower mosaic of Heydar Aliyev (pictured here), ensuring that his unmistakable Kremlin-Mona-Lisa smile would soar above the city already covered by his portraits.
Vladic Ravich is a freelance photojournalist based in Turkey.
