Georgia

Georgia has threatened to revoke pro-Western former president Mikheil Saakashvili's citizenship after he was granted a Ukrainian passport and appointed as governor of the strategic Odessa region.
 
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said Saakashvili's move, which according to the constitution, could lead to the loss of Georgian citizenship, "insulted our state."  

National Defence Minister Mircea Dusa in Tbilisi on Monday met Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili, at the Presidential Administration Palace, on which occasion he appreciated the efforts and firm commitment of the Republic of Georgia for strengthening the cooperation with NATO, informs a National Defence Ministry (MApN) press release.

Greece has not asked Russia for any type of loan, a spokesman for the Russian presidency replied on Friday to a reporter's question, ahead of a state visit to Moscow next week by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.

Nevertheless, the spokesman did say that the economic situation in Greece will be on the agenda of talks, as well as the issue of EU sanctions on Russia.

Turkish police have detained two Georgians on the border between the two countries, after one hid herself inside a suitcase in order to be smuggled into Turkey.

Russia and South Ossetia on Wednesday signed a Treaty on Alliance and Integration that calls for forming a common defence and security space between Moscow and Georgia's breakaway region.

Romania does not recognise the "so-called treaty of alliance and integration" which has just been signed between Russia and the South Ossetia Georgian separatist region, the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) said on Wednesday.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Russia launches large-scale drills in south

MOSCOW -- Military exercises have been launched in Russia's southern regions and in Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The drills are also carried out in Crimea, that was in 2014 reintegrated with Russia, Tanjug reported.

Georgian Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili expressed concern about Russia's "creeping annexation" of the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Beruchashvili was particularly concerned about the agreements Russia has signed with the two separatist regions, which aim at deepening integration, The Moscow Times reports.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Speaker of Georgian Parliament Davit Usupashvili discussed opportunities for cooperation in the fields of energy security, transport, agriculture and tourism.

Özgecan Aslan was a 20-year-old university student. She was killed in a private bus after an attempted rape in Tarsus, between Mersin and Adana on the southern coast of Turkey. The perpetrators of the monstrous crime disfigured and burned her body. They have all been arrested. Yet the slogan ?Have you heard Özgecan?s cry?? is still echoing across massive protests all over the country.