Protest: 70 recruits leave Paldo base
By Keti Arjevanidze
Monday, April 8
Around seventy recruits, including one sergeant, left their military bases without permission on April 5. Humiliating orders from the commander was cited as one of the reasons for their decision.
One of the recruits in his telephone interview with Rustavi 2 recalls that 70 future military servants were treated on Paldo military base; the recruit added that due to abusive commands many other recruits are going to leave the base.
Head of the Joint Staff, Colonel Irakli Dzneladze, confirmed the fact although added the order which was given to the recruits by the sergeant is part of the internal agenda and the military servants should not refuse it. “When the agenda implies cleanliness and order, every military servant is obliged to follow orders,” said Colonel Dzneladze.
He also explained that to leave the military base for the recruits does not imply any judgment, because none of the soldiers who left the base, had taken the weapons given out in their names.
Colonel Aluda Kopaliani, denied all the accusations and presented the statement of the Defense Ministry, which reads that the administration received 4,383 applications on 600 vacant positions from the citizens of Georgia willing to join the Georgian Army on a contract-based military service.
The statement also reads that due to the recruits that have left Paldo military base, department management decided to dismiss them from the base.
“To be a soldier and to protect the motherland is an honor of worthy citizens. To protect the honor of the soldiers is the first and foremost responsibility of the Georgian Defense Ministry,” reads the official statement.
The Defense Ministry also informs that the military police and General Inspection will investigate and study the case.
Gia Baramidze, of the United National Movement, criticized the Defense Ministry in making politicized statements and in launching a political campaign towards the previous government and advised them to pay attentions to the problems which “objectively exists in the Ministry.”
