Georgian PM: "Protesters committed severe violence; the other side also had incidents"
Georgian PM accuses Europe of orchestrating protests
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze described the protests in Tbilisi as “violence against police,” accusing European politicians and the opposition, which he called “foreign agents,” of orchestrating the unrest.
Kobakhidze, re-elected earlier this month by a parliament composed solely of ruling Georgian Dream party lawmakers, made the remarks as thousands continued to rally on Rustaveli Avenue since Oct. 28. The protests erupted after the government announced it would suspend negotiations to join the European Union until 2028.
The opposition, which secured about 46% of the vote in the Oct. 26 parliamentary elections, has declared the results rigged by the authorities and is boycotting parliament.
For two consecutive nights, around 200,000 people gathered outside the parliament, where riot police dispersed crowds with water cannons, pepper spray, and reportedly rubber bullets. Dozens were injured, some with chemical burns, and over 150 people were detained. Families searched for detained protesters for hours, finding many held far from Tbilisi.
However, at a briefing on 30 November, Irakli Kobakhidze accused protesters of engaging in violence against police. “Aggressive groups gathered and immediately resorted to violence. Protesters used Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and heavy objects against the police, injuring about 50 officers, 20 of whom required surgery,” he said.
Kobakhidze acknowledged “extremely concerning incidents” involving law enforcement but described them as isolated cases, adding, “It is important to investigate the facts on both sides.”
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze thanked Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and the police for “defending the constitutional order of Georgia.”
“I don’t even want to imagine what the outcome of this rally would have been, given the scale of violence by aggressive groups, if the interior minister had been Vano Merabishvili (who served under former President Mikheil Saakashvili) or Giorgi Gakharia (a former prime minister who joined the opposition),” Kobakhidze said.
“For them, killing several people or blinding others would have been a minimal result to end such a protest,” he added.
Georgian PM Kobakhidze: “European politicians are fueling polarization in Georgia”
Irakli Kobakhidze accused European politicians of “orchestrating provocations in Georgia” and labeled four opposition parties that entered parliament after the Oct. 26 elections as “foreign agents” and a “fifth column.”
“For three years, certain European politicians and bureaucrats, who failed to achieve the ‘Ukrainization’ of Georgia, have been using the country’s EU candidate status and the prospect of opening membership talks as tools to damage Georgia’s image and divide its society. They aim to weaken the country and fuel polarization,” Kobakhidze said.
He also accused EU Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski of dishonesty.
“The EU ambassador recently stated that the European Union had paused Georgia’s integration process. Now he claims it was Georgia that halted its own integration into Europe,” Kobakhidze said.
He concluded by asserting that “Georgia has not stopped its EU integration process. The country continues to fulfill all obligations related to this process.”
