Fear of police violence and deportation: the Georgia protests from a Swiss perspective

Swiss citizens and Swiss-Georgians are also taking part in the demonstrations against the Georgian government. Some fear they could be deported; one person withdrew their statements to SWI swissinfo.ch as a result. Swiss cheesemaker and filmmaker Frances Besler lives in the capital Tbilisi. She spends the summer months high in the Georgian mountain pastures with her husband. Despite the major protests rocking the country, business orders keep flowing in. “We’ve been producing Swiss cheese here for nine years and people still want to buy it. Georgians and Russians alike. Cheese knows no nationality,” she says. Besler is taking active part in the protests in Tbilisi. The demonstrations against the Georgian government began after contested elections and the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. As well as producing cheese, Besler is involved in filming for a documentary project that has been running for four years. “Some of the protagonists have ...