Ivanishvili claims 'Georgia’s enemies' may use 4 October election for coup attempt
Bidzina Ivanishvili’s open letter
On the 13th anniversary of Georgian Dream’s victory in the 2012 elections, the party’s honorary chairman and Georgia’s de facto ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, published an open letter warning of “internal and external enemies” of the government. He claimed that foreign adversaries see the upcoming municipal elections on 4 October as an opportunity for inciting unrest and a possible coup.
In the letter, Ivanishvili described Western countries as “external forces disguised as friends and partners, who were forced to openly admit that they demand Georgia’s submission to their interests.”
He also referred to what he called “blatant betrayal within the Georgian Dream team”, saying this had created a real risk of derailing the country’s development path and paving the way for the return of forces loyal to “foreign interests.”
Ivanishvili’s open letter
“For me personally, the hardest part has been witnessing open betrayal within our team in recent years. This not only sparked a crisis within Georgian Dream, but also posed a real threat to the Georgian people and our country, risking a deviation from our development path and a return to leadership under forces loyal to foreign interests.
In the past, some members of our team believed that yielding to influential foreign powers or prioritising personal comfort over the interests of our citizens could bring them greater benefit. We endured this. The support of the Georgian people has given me and our team the will to fight and strengthened our belief that we can overcome any challenge,” Ivanishvili wrote in the letter.
According to him, attacks on Georgia’s sovereignty are becoming more frequent and intense, although “certain forces” are now compelled to act not because of internal enemies, as was the case before, but due to external pressures.
As a result, the country’s informal leader believes, “agents” embedded within opposition parties and NGOs have weakened. Yet Ivanishvili insists that the public must still clearly understand which forces are trying to bend Georgia to their interests:
“They easily replace one familiar face with another, swap one party for another, or even switch one television channel for another to deceive our citizens. They can introduce new foreign politicians onto the political stage, so-called influential experts acting against Georgia, who will replace those already caught in lies. They find it hard to accept that they can no longer deceive us,” Bidzina Ivanishvili writes.
As Ivanishvili notes, authority for the Georgian people is not about names, titles or manufactured influential politicians — it is about the truth.
“On 4 October we face another test — to defend our unity, the ideals of 1 October, and the gains of past years. In the upcoming local elections, internal and external enemies see yet another opportunity to provoke unrest, stage a coup and pursue their own goals.
More and more people are seeing these forces’ true intentions, their support is shrinking by the day, and state institutions in Georgia are stronger than ever. Their only remaining option is a direct attack on the state and, therefore, on the people.
Against this background, on 4 October we have the chance to show once again that our struggle today is to turn out to vote, make a free choice, and preserve peace and stability. Today we can cement the peaceful victory won by Georgian Dream in 2012, leave radicalism and confrontation behind, and together fight for development and prosperity — to finally overcome poverty, strengthen sovereignty and peacefully unite the country!” Ivanishvili said.
