President Zourabichvili Initiates Political Reconciliation Process
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, December 16
Yesterday, the President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili met with Patriarch Ilia II. According to the Presidential Administration, at a face-to-face meeting at the Georgian Patriarchate, the President of Georgia introduced her initiative to start the process of national agreement. As the president announced on December 10, she would initiate an inclusive process with a large-scale involvement of the public, to allow Georgia to ‘move forward.’ Former president Mikheil Saakashvili and leaders of opposition parties have also called on the government to take steps for national reconciliation which, according to them, is in everyone’s, especially in the country’s interests.
The Georgian patriarchy announced following the meeting that the church would ‘always support the initiatives’ which will be targeted at reconciliation and peace and be based on ‘the principles of Christianity and justice.’
Zourabichvili in an interview with France 24 stated that she took responsibility to start “a process of reconciliation, truth, and justice.” Zourabichvili also answered a question regarding the ex-president Saakashvili’s return to Georgia. According to her, his return was a bad message and encouraged political instability and polarization, which, according to her, is the biggest problem of the country today.
According to a member of the United National Movement party Khatia Dekanoidze, she feels optimistic about the dialogue announced by the president about reconciliation.
“I want her to play this historic role, because we have no other task but to stop the political persecution in Georgia. It is an obstacle in terms of our membership in the European family,” said Dekanoidze.
