Georgian Minister of Culture criticizes the President: "Zurabishvili stated Georgia started the war"
Georgian Minister of Culture criticizes the President for damaging statements
Minister of Culture of Georgia, Teia Tsulukiani, claims that the current President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, hindered her and the entire country during the reviewal of the claim against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights on the issue of the 2008 war. At that time Teia Tsulukiani held the position of the Minister of Justice.
“Zurabishvili, who was then a presidential candidate, said that it was Georgia who started the war,” Tsulukiani said.
Tsulukiani claims that Salome Zurabishvili “made this statement behind the backs of the lawyers who were on the battlefield” and lied about Georgia “having started the war”, accusing the Georgian army:
«Of course, Russia used this against us. After a lot of hard work, we managed to revoke all this”.
Tsulukiani says she does not remember any help offered by the President when she was defending the interests of Georgia as the Minister of Justice and representative of the state in Strasbourg.
In an interview with “Public Broadcaster”, the Minister of Culture also spoke about one of the disputes that Georgia lost in Strasbourg, “due to a public statement of a certain well-known face”. However, the Minister did not clarify who she was referring to and what dispute she was talking about.
This is not the first clash between the ruling party and the President.
On March 15, “Georgian Dream” reported President Salome Zurabishvili to have violated the country’s constitution, with a lawsuit to be filed against her in the Constitutional Court. The violation in question referred to the meeting between Salome Zurabishvili and Emmanuel Macron, which took place in February.
Georgia has never seen a case where the current president would be taken to the constitutional court for violating the constitution.
The annual report of the President in the Parliament caused discontent of the ruling party.
Zurabishvili came to the Parliament together with the temporary representative of Ukraine and demonstrated photographs of the war in Ukraine. In her speech, she also criticized the government for its restrained policy towards Ukraine.
A few days ago, Salome Zurabishvili accused the parliamentary majority of violating Article 78 of the Constitution, which implies integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures.
Zurabishvili claims they are doing everything to prevent Georgia from advancing on the path of European integration, which is a «violation of the constitution».
Georgian Minister of Culture criticizes the President for damaging statements