Preliminary meeting of Representative Public Assembly

A Representative Public Assembly meeting was held in Tbilisi Philharmonic on September 29. This was only a preparatory meeting and the main Assembly meeting will be held a bit later, once the Georgian society has acquire sufficient information on the Assembly’s plans and attempts. The meeting was attended by famous and respected representatives of Georgian society, political leaders, analysts and ordinary citizens.

“I appeal to all our citizens, who want to change the present authority to unite around the idea. Your support will be the most significant in the struggle. The present government has created an unbearable situation in the country, not only in political direction, which has been extremely negatively reflected on every Georgian. The struggle against Georgian culture and traditions are taking place. The media, which is being monopolized and controlled by the authorities, do not give people real picture of events. One of our aims is to display the real current situation to the people arriving here from Georgian regions, as well. It is our preparatory meeting, to inform the society of the idea, its priorities and aims, the main assembly will be held soon, when the assembly will be delegated by the representatives of Georgian regions.” Nona Gaprindashvili, 5 times World champion in chess and the head of the Assembly’s initiative group stated.

There is no time for concurrence, everyone, for whom the idea of national unification is important, should stand here- the leader of the movement Solidarity to Illegal Prisoners, Eka Beselia told the Messenger, “When people gather they can make any decision. Today is the launch of the new Public Assembly and we should stand among this people as this is very much a national idea. When people state that they do not believe in the present authority, it is already a political statement and participation in it is very important, “Beselia stated.

As the leader of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia stated, Nino Burjanadze stated for the Messenger, “We have supported the idea from the beginning. I do not understand why other opposition representatives declined participation in it, if the idea of the assembly was obscure for them, they could attend today’s meeting and get all necessary information, “Burjanadze stated.

The main reasons which have been named by those opposition parties which refused to participate in the meeting, has been a lack of information on the idea, “We did not participate in the meeting as the format and the goals of the Representative Public Assembly are unclear to us. If there is more information on the issue, we will discuss the case one more time, “ Tina Khidasheli, from the Republican Party, stated. The same reason has been put forward by the New Rights, “We support to all unifications aiming to change the present authority, however first of all, they should display what they intend and what are they capable of doing, “ Davit Saganelidze, from the party, said.

The Messenger has tried to receive comments from the majority representatives concerning the issue, however, MPs Nugzar Tsiklauri and Akaki Minashvili refrained from making any comment due to the lack of information regarding the case that day.

As analyst, Soso Tsiskarishvili told The Messenger, the idea might be successful, “I have attended the meeting to get more information on the Representative Public Assembly. I can say that it is a new initiative and in general, all new initiatives are followed by trust and distrust. Everything should be revealed step by step. If the Assembly will strengthen the idea, it might be successful,” Tsiskarishvili stated.