In Tbilisi, police tries to split two opposing protests

Two opposing rallies are held in front of parliament in Tbilisi on the evening of July 6. Two large groups are separated by a dense police cordon.

One action was announced by the leader of the opposition “Girchi – More Freedom” party, MP Zurab Japaridze, in support of journalists who were beaten yesterday by ultra-right and homophobic groups protesting against the Pride march.

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Most of the opposition parties responded to Japaridze’s initiative and announced that they would join the action.

However, aggressive right-wing groups came to the same place at the same time to obstruct the announced action.

“We are the real Georgians” – this is how Zurab Japaridze addresses the society in an emotional statement on his Facebook page.

“We can argue about what taxes, the education system should be, which party is better. But I appeal to people with whom we agree on basic things:

• You can’t beat the weak with a whole crowd,
• You can’t beat women
• You cannot hit a child for a tattoo, long hair or an earring,
• You can’t rush at a tourist because you don’t like his appearance,
• You can’t chase and beat journalists and cameramen in a crowd.

These are elementary rules of civilized. There are many more of us in this country! We are in the majority! We are real Georgians and real Caucasians, and we really observe traditions!

We are real Christians. And we are the ones who truly believe what Christ preached!

On the other side are the far-right groups. Those who crowd-beat the weak, children, women, journalists, have no nationality, no origin, no faith and no honor. This is a symbiosis of today’s “Dream”, the patriarchy and the criminal world.

They rule over us today. But there are more of us! Do not be afraid! Do not cede the country to them! We will definitely win this war. “

The Ministry of Internal Affairs urged the participants of the actions not to go beyond the limits allowed by the law on freedom of assembly, not to admit calls for violence and “to do everything so that the actions do not become violent”.