President Mikheil Saakashvili implied that Russia was involved in the ill-fated demonstration organized by Burjanadze – an impression fed by Burjanadze’s post-war “public diplomacy” trips to Moscow for meetings with Russian leaders.

A group of experts and political figures who have been involved in the Northern Ireland and Cyprus peace processes is visiting Baku. I am part of this group as an expert from Cyprus. We will be attending a series of round-table meetings together with Azerbaijani experts and politicians.

Meetings of high ranking U.S. diplomats with leaders of the countries will focus on issues on the bilateral agenda and the regional situation. They will meet with representatives of civil society and media in each of the countries, the State Department reports.

According to a poll, three fourths of Georgians are calling for a fence-mending with Russia and want a more peaceful North Caucasus, a prominent Georgian political scientist told a Tbilisi round table on Thursday.

Officials in Georgia harbor ambitions of turning the South Caucasus country into a global cultural center, but those plans took a big hit when a deal to bring the New York Philharmonic to Tbilisi imploded recently. Now, Georgian officials are scrambling to repair the damage done to the country’s image.

As part of a new nationwide initiative, 350 foreigners will descend this week on rural and impoverished Georgian public schools to teach English. The initiative, "Teach and Learn with Georgia," is the brainchild of Georgia’s staunchly pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who announced in August an ambitious program to have every Georgian schoolchild speaking English in the next four years. English language and computer skills are essential to Georgia’s economic and technological development, he said.

Armenian adults and school children arrived in Georgia as part of the framework of the English Language Learning Strengthening Program of Buckswood Summer School...They will spend 21 days with Georgian peers at Tskneti English Language Summer School. They will have an intensive course of English and participate in different sports, educational and cultural activities.

As diplomatic efforts to resolve political disputes continue in the Caucasus, civil society groups from countries in the region are working on projects that they hope will help bring hostile nations together.