A passenger traveling on Air Serbia this week noticed a glaring error in the in-fight magazine: the Republic of Georgia had suddenly become part of Russia.
Republic Of Georgia Conspicuously Missing On Air Serbia Flight Map
Elevate, the in-flight magazine of Air Serbia, not only omitted the border outlines of Georgia, but also the capital city of Tbilisi. Georgia borders Russia to the north, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to the south, Russian and Azerbaijan to the east, and the Black Sea to the west.
Air Serbia promptly promised to correct the issue.
Dear Hank, thank you very much for letting us know. The publisher is informed and this obvious mistake will be corrected as of next issue.
— Air Serbia (@airserbia) January 9, 2022
The geopolitical relations between Serbia and Georgia are stable if not solid. Georgia strongly supports Serbia’s stance on Kosovo while Serbia supports Georgia’s stance on South Ossetia. Just last month, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovi met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia David Zalkaliani in Stockholm. There, Georgia reaffirmed its support for the Serbian position on Kosovo.
Georgia – Russian relations are a whole different matter. Georgia and Russia have had no formal relations since the Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. There, Russian and Georgian forces sparred over the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That war displaced thousands of ethnic Georgians and the European Court of Human Rights later found that Russia was directly responsible for human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing, which took place during the brief conflict.
With no relations, the Swiss embassy serves as an intermediary, hosting a Russian interests section in Tbilisi and a Georgian interests section in Moscow.
CONCLUSION
It’s a very strange omittance on the map, but according to Air Serbia, it was not a deliberate mistake (like Gulf carriers conveniently omitting Israel on in-flight maps). We’ll see if Georgia suddenly appears on the map in next month’s in-flight magazine.
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Serbia should cancel Australia from the map.
Serbia don’t even deserve to exist.
Official name of Georgia is only Georgia, not “Republic of”.
Just trying to make it clear for my primarily U.S. audience I am not talking abbot the southern U.S. State.
“the European Court of Human Rights later found that Russia was directly responsible for human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing, which took place during the brief conflict”
As a point of correction, the court did not consider presumed violations during the conflict, but only what happened after the conflict:
“In its case against Russia, Georgia accused it of violating the European Convention on Human Rights both during and after the war, but the ECHR only accepted the Georgian complaints related to the period after the fighting.” … “the Georgian complaints related to the period of fighting were inadmissible”.
https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/26/russia-guilty-of-violations-during-2008-war-with-georgia-says-europe-s-top-court
A couple of years ago I was on an Air Qatar flight. On the monitor showing its route I noticed it flew near Israel…except that was the one country in the region which didn’t exist. The Palestinian cities were named and the physical features and coastline were accurate, but that was it. It’s a bit like how for decades the U.S. didn’t admit there was something called the “People’s Republic of China.” Politics, not reality.