15 Georgian opposition parties address Mike Pompeo
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, July 19
The 15 opposition party addresses the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and expresses their concern over the ongoing processes in the country.
In their joint letter, the parties claim that oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream (GD) government is gradually returning the country towards Moscow and despite the fact that this course is not publicly announced by the government, it has become more visible lately.
The letter states that the Georgian government has signed an agreement with the Kremlin-related energy giant Gazprom.
Also, the parties say the future of the building project in of a port in Anaklia is unclear, adding Ivanishvili targeted the founders of Anaklia Development Consortium, which is constructing strategic importance deep sea port in the country. The authors of the letter also note that the suspension of the construction of a deep-water port is only in Russia’s interests.
The letter also speaks about the strengthening of hate groups of pro-Russian orientation. They also doubt that Ivanishvili controls anti-Western extremist groups for his political interests.
The letter also speaks about the developments on June 20. The opposition parties point out that thousands of citizens held a demonstration in Tbilisi against Russia who was dispersed later which the police used force without warning.
“At least 200 people received injuries, including those who lost their eyes…More than 300 protesters were arrested, and most of them were beaten up and treated inhumane but were later released. Since then, demonstrations with the Parliament are being held to demand the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia,” the letter reads.
However, the authors of the letter say that instead of dismissing the interior minister and investigating the facts of excessive use of force, the authorities are trying to shift the responsibility to opposition leaders and apolitical demonstrators.
The opposition parties also mention the removal of immunity of one of the opposition MPs Nika Melia, who was accused of organizing and inciting the storm on Parliament and was sentenced to home imprisonment and GEL 30,000 bail. The opposition parties believe this practice resembles Soviet times.
June 20-21 protests were launched after the Russian MPs arrived in Tbilisi to participate in the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) session. During the session, Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov addressed the IAO participants from the chair of the Georgian Parliament Speaker, which angered Georgian opposition MPs and protesters outside the building. Some of them tried to enter the Parliament, which escalated the situation between the demonstrators and the police.
Around 240 people were injured during the protests while up to 300 were arrested. Later, a decision was taken to wrap up the session and for the Russian delegation to leave the country.
