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On June 20, 2020, Tbilisi marks the first anniversary of the bloody crackdown against a massive anti-government protest.

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The main demand was the reform of the electoral system, which the opposition has not been able to fully achieve to this day.

The police then used tear gas and water cannons and rubber bullets on thousands of young people on Rustaveli Avenue in front of the parliament building.  

Two people lost their eyes, more than 200 were injured.

Activists and the opposition will gather at the parliament building at 7 p.m. later today to mark this date. It is expected that hundreds of Tbilisi residents will join them.

The demonstration has been authorized by Tbilisi City Hall. Rustaveli Avenue will be closed starting from 14.00.

The organizers said that all recommendations of the World Health Organization in connection with the coronavirus pandemic will be observed.

At the place of the rally, special signs have been set up to help people maintain two meters of distance.

Masks, face shields and disinfectants will be available  directly on site.

Organizers urge citizens to protest, standing with their heads bowed.

The protest, which in Tbilisi has been called “The Night of Gavrilov”: what, why and how it happened

On the morning of June 20, 2019, a spontaneous protest began in Georgia, without any preliminary organization.

The parliament opened the International Orthodox Parliamentary Forum that day. Soon it became known that one of the organizers of the forum, Russian Duma MP Sergei Gavrilov, decided to conduct the meeting from the chair of the Georgian speaker.

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Soon, about hundreds were protesting on Rustaveli Avenue. Participants in the spontaneous protest asked the Georgian government with the question:

“Who allowed the MP of a country that does not recognize the territorial integrity of Georgia to sit in the chair of the Georgian speaker?”

By evening, this was no longer a rally, but a huge protest that swept the entire center of Tbilisi. According to various sources, up to 20,000 people gathered. There were attempts to break into parliament, which guards repelled.  Unrest and confrontation with the police lasted all night.

In the morning of June 21, special forces went on the offensive and dispersed the protest using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.

More than 200 people were injured.

Two people,18-year-old Mako Gomuri and 26-year-old Giorgi Sulashvili, were hit by a rubber bullet in the eye, in which they lost eyesight.

Gomuri and Sulashvili were recognized as victims of police actions only five months later, after lengthy litigations.