WEASA P2P Meeting of Jovan Gjorgovski: From Skopje to Tbilisi with love

The idea to travel to Georgia came to Jovan’s mind during his participation in WEASA 2022. As he later pitched in his application for the WEASA Peer-to-Peer Meetings, he found striking parallels between the countries of the South Caucasus, in particular Georgia, and the Western Balkans. Being a Journalist and Editor at Kanal 5 in North Macedonia and having the journalistic curiosity, Jovan wanted to see how Georgians are transforming their political infrastructure to a modern European one, how they live near Russia, what they think about the war in Ukraine, etc. 

Jovan believed that people in North Macedonia would like to know about a country whose territorial integrity is violated due to the Russian aggression. In addition, it is interesting to explore a country which does not have friendly relationship with Russia, but many Russians relocated to Georgia because they did not want to stay in their country as a result of the war.  

Jovan was hosted by his peer, Georgian alumnus of 2022 Davit Partsvania, who works at the Tbilisi City Council. With the support of David, Jovan conducted interviews with Nodar Meladze, the head of TV Pireli and Giga Bokeria, the former member of Parliament and a former Chair of the Security Council of Georgia. 

Jovan’s article and the video reportage were recently aired in North Macedonia and gained a lot of positive feedback. Here is the article available both in Macedonian and English. The video material is also available in English. You can take a look here.

In addition, Jovan met other Georgian alumni members, who showed him around Georgia, shared their delicious food during a small WEASA reunion. For Jovan this trip was crucial, as Georgia is not well covered in his region and now, he is aware not only about Georgia but the South Caucasus in general. 

“This is a great initiative that helps bringing people from far places together to share knowledge, experience and to deepen the friendship that has already started because of WEASA”, shares his ideas Jovan with us about WEASA Peer-to-Peer Professional Meetings. 

We would like to thank Jovan for this initiative as well as David and other Georgian alumni who helped carry out his initiative!