'We remember June 20': new video in the Georgia Protests Live Blog
Seven years after the “Gavrilov Night” in Tbilisi
On the 571st consecutive day of protests in Georgia, where demonstrators continue to demand that the government meet the European Union’s conditions and resume the country’s EU integration process, the traditional Saturday march in Tbilisi on June 20 was dedicated to the tragic events that took place exactly seven years ago and came to be known as “Gavrilov Night.”
Exactly seven years ago, on the night of June 20–21, 2019, authorities violently dispersed a mass protest outside the parliament building. Police used rubber bullets and batons. Two people lost an eye after being struck by rubber bullets, around 240 were injured, and dozens were arrested.
The immediate trigger for the protests was that, during the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, held in the Georgian parliament, Russian MP Sergei Gavrilov took the seat of the Georgian parliamentary speaker.
Giorgi Gakharia, who was interior minister at the time and is now one of the leaders of the opposition, is currently living in exile. Criminal charges have been brought against him in connection with the events of June 20, 2019.
The date is considered one of the key political events in modern Georgian history.
The march began outside the Philharmonic Hall in Tbilisi, after which thousands of participants joined the hundreds of people who, as they do every evening, had gathered outside the Parliament building. The participants carried banners and the flags of Georgia, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union.
For more than a year and halh – since November 2024 – continuous protests have been taking place in Georgia, with demonstrators demanding that the country return to the path of European integration. Every evening thousands, and often tens of thousands, gather in Tbilisi and several other cities. Over this time dozens of participants have been detained, many have faced criminal charges, and some have been sentenced to prison terms.
For the first time in the history of independent Georgia, the country has up to 150 prisoners of conscience, including women. Among them is Mzia Amaglobeli, founder of the popular outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti. In 2025 she was sentenced to two years in prison for slapping a police officer.
Protesters demand the release of all political prisoners, new parliamentary elections – as they do not recognize the results of the 2024 vote – and the repeal of all anti-democratic laws adopted over the past two years.
To suppress the protests, the ruling Georgian Dream party has increasingly tightened repression against civil society and the media. However, protests in various forms continue.
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