Press Scanner
Compiled by Messenger Staff
Tuesday, June 15
The Government does not like the EU anymore
"Accepting EU membership equals buying a ticket on the Titanic", Levan Ramishvili, the leader of the Liberty Institute, says in Akhali Taoba. He was commenting on an anti-European article in Tabula, the ideological trumpet of the Government, which attacks Europe for its social democracy and lauds Georgia's ultraliberal position.
Ultraliberal Georgia has conducted very strange propaganda in the recent period – the US administration is bad, Germany and France are bad, Orthodoxy is bad! All the directions the Government has been leading us in have turned out to be bad. We wanted Europe, European standards, NATO and the EU a short time ago, but today we are cooperating with Persian Gulf states, Iran, Turkey and Latin America, the newspaper says.
When Saakashvili figured out that we he would not get us into NATO, he pinned his hopes on America but Bush retired and the more balanced Obama, who does not like to have relations with unbalanced persons, took office. Then he turned to the EU, which hoped Georgia would spend the billions it gave in aid to establish NATO standards. However, it turned out that the economic reforms demanded by the EU are not in the interest of the Georgian Government. Saakashvili’s team consists of ultra-liberals who try to justify the non-performance of their tasks by spouting anti-leftist economic formulas and reserving the right to use the police to achieve its ends, it continues.
The EU believes that promoting rights and freedoms includes intervening to give people opportunities. But Saakashvili’s Government calls such policies social-democratic or socialist, claiming that the state restricts economic and personal freedom by this intervention. It therefore opposes the obligations EU membership would place upon it. The Georgian Government is not interested in joining the EU and Georgia will not join as long as Saakashvili’s ultraliberal Government is in power. the newspaper says.
The lack of regulation of economies and markets resulted in the global economic crisis of 2008. Today the world is endeavouring to overcome the crisis by making regulatory forms. Ultraliberalism is like the Titanic in Georgia. Libertarian Georgians have bought tickets for this Titanic. Following an ultraliberal course is the only way the present Government can remain in power, but we may join the EU when ‘irresponsible freedom’ is replaced by ‘responsible accountability,’ the newspaper says.
Georgian human rights activists in Moscow
Mteli Kvira writes that on Monday Nana Kakabadze and Gela Nikoleishvili, representing Former Prisoners for Human Rights, left for Moscow to participate in the conference of the Scientists Protection Committee and the Moscow-Helsinki Group.
"The conference is about human rights protection and will last until June 17. We will speak about the state of human rights in Georgia. Our Russian colleagues are addressing the same issue in Moscow. We have cooperated for 30 years when we opposed Communism and were political prisoners at the same time. We have had regular contact since then. We are going to Moscow to compare the regimes of Saakashvili and Putin and find ways to fight against them," Gela Nikoleishvili says.
"Coordination is essential, especially when Saakashvili disguises his actions by presenting them as democratic while Putin does not or cannot do the same in Russia. We have common concerns about court independence and business restriction. We will also talk about now elections are held," Nikoleishvili adds.
"Political representatives will not participate in the conference. We have not planned any concrete meetings yet and the agenda of the conference is still unknown: we were told that NGOs, Human Rights Watch researchers and journalists wanted to meet us and we consented. If the representatives of the Diaspora want to talk to us, we will not ignore them," Nikoleishvili states.
Asked whether Malkhaz Gulashvili, who is in Moscow now, has contacted his organisation Nikoleishvili says: "If he expresses a desire to meet us, we will meet him too. But we do not know how as yet and do not have the time to contact him."
"Accepting EU membership equals buying a ticket on the Titanic", Levan Ramishvili, the leader of the Liberty Institute, says in Akhali Taoba. He was commenting on an anti-European article in Tabula, the ideological trumpet of the Government, which attacks Europe for its social democracy and lauds Georgia's ultraliberal position.
Ultraliberal Georgia has conducted very strange propaganda in the recent period – the US administration is bad, Germany and France are bad, Orthodoxy is bad! All the directions the Government has been leading us in have turned out to be bad. We wanted Europe, European standards, NATO and the EU a short time ago, but today we are cooperating with Persian Gulf states, Iran, Turkey and Latin America, the newspaper says.
When Saakashvili figured out that we he would not get us into NATO, he pinned his hopes on America but Bush retired and the more balanced Obama, who does not like to have relations with unbalanced persons, took office. Then he turned to the EU, which hoped Georgia would spend the billions it gave in aid to establish NATO standards. However, it turned out that the economic reforms demanded by the EU are not in the interest of the Georgian Government. Saakashvili’s team consists of ultra-liberals who try to justify the non-performance of their tasks by spouting anti-leftist economic formulas and reserving the right to use the police to achieve its ends, it continues.
The EU believes that promoting rights and freedoms includes intervening to give people opportunities. But Saakashvili’s Government calls such policies social-democratic or socialist, claiming that the state restricts economic and personal freedom by this intervention. It therefore opposes the obligations EU membership would place upon it. The Georgian Government is not interested in joining the EU and Georgia will not join as long as Saakashvili’s ultraliberal Government is in power. the newspaper says.
The lack of regulation of economies and markets resulted in the global economic crisis of 2008. Today the world is endeavouring to overcome the crisis by making regulatory forms. Ultraliberalism is like the Titanic in Georgia. Libertarian Georgians have bought tickets for this Titanic. Following an ultraliberal course is the only way the present Government can remain in power, but we may join the EU when ‘irresponsible freedom’ is replaced by ‘responsible accountability,’ the newspaper says.
Georgian human rights activists in Moscow
Mteli Kvira writes that on Monday Nana Kakabadze and Gela Nikoleishvili, representing Former Prisoners for Human Rights, left for Moscow to participate in the conference of the Scientists Protection Committee and the Moscow-Helsinki Group.
"The conference is about human rights protection and will last until June 17. We will speak about the state of human rights in Georgia. Our Russian colleagues are addressing the same issue in Moscow. We have cooperated for 30 years when we opposed Communism and were political prisoners at the same time. We have had regular contact since then. We are going to Moscow to compare the regimes of Saakashvili and Putin and find ways to fight against them," Gela Nikoleishvili says.
"Coordination is essential, especially when Saakashvili disguises his actions by presenting them as democratic while Putin does not or cannot do the same in Russia. We have common concerns about court independence and business restriction. We will also talk about now elections are held," Nikoleishvili adds.
"Political representatives will not participate in the conference. We have not planned any concrete meetings yet and the agenda of the conference is still unknown: we were told that NGOs, Human Rights Watch researchers and journalists wanted to meet us and we consented. If the representatives of the Diaspora want to talk to us, we will not ignore them," Nikoleishvili states.
Asked whether Malkhaz Gulashvili, who is in Moscow now, has contacted his organisation Nikoleishvili says: "If he expresses a desire to meet us, we will meet him too. But we do not know how as yet and do not have the time to contact him."