The Prime Minister of Georgia compared the protesting youth to the killer of the famous Ilia Chavchavadze
Georgian PM’s letter to youth
On May 10th, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, published an open letter regarding the “foreign agents” bill, addressing the protesting youth and likening them to Gigla Berbichashvili, the killer of the legendary Georgian poet and public figure of the 19th century, Ilia Chavchavadze. In 1987, Chavchavadze was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
In this letter, the Prime Minister also stated that a study was conducted indicating that support for the “Georgian Dream” among voters with high IQ stands at 73.8%, while among voters with average IQ, it’s at 45.6%.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili deemed the Prime Minister’s statement “shameful,” and social media users responded with numerous ironic posts regarding Kobakhidze’s remarks about IQ.
What did Irakli Kobakhidze write?
Irakli Kobakhidze promises that the government will primarily be guided by the “wishes of the 200,000 people of all ages who attended the rally of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream’ party on April 29.”
Georgian media have published a series of investigations detailing how administrative resources were used to compel employees of government agencies, schools, and kindergartens to travel to Tbilisi to participate in the ruling party’s rally on April 29, 2024, in support of the ‘foreign agents’ bill. They were brought in buses from all regions of Georgia, causing massive traffic jams on highways across the country for nearly a day. Read more here.
“We will act at the behest of over 60% of Georgian voters who firmly and consciously support transparency in NGOs and, accordingly, Georgia’s peaceful future,” the prime minister declares.
Kobakhidze urges all “sincere but misled youth” to critically examine their actions. He promises that the Georgian state “will take care of all sincere young people, including those who are currently misled and unaware of the many troubles that most of Georgian society and its elected authorities have managed to avoid.”
As an example, Kobakhidze mentions a certain, supposedly familiar, “sincere young man who, ‘despite so many mistakes, still participates in protests today.'” This “youth’s” Facebook profile picture “still features the inscription “Glory to Ukraine” and the flags of the European Union and Ukraine, but there is no place for the Georgian flag there,” writes the Prime Minister.
In his letter, Kobakhidze focuses on this mysterious “young man from social media.” The Prime Minister recalls various events of the last two to three years and, somewhat ironically, with rhetorical questions, appeals to this “young man.”
He recalls, for instance, that in February 2022, “this young man” was among the first to join protests demanding sanctions against Russia. “But if Georgia’s economy had collapsed as a result, this young man would have blamed not himself but the government,” writes the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also mentions some Georgian celebrities, including the singer Nino Katamadze, “who until 2019 were giving concerts in Russia” and began calling it an occupier of Georgian territories only after it attacked Ukraine.
“The nationalist’s brain works in such a way that sometimes it’s capable of thinking, and sometimes it’s not. That’s why their irritation towards Russians is also selective,” the Prime Minister says.
“In general, the most dangerous thing for the state is the dominance of people with average intelligence and knowledge, which is confirmed by the Dunning-Kruger effect. According to this theory, a person with average intelligence and knowledge has the highest level of self-confidence. A person who hasn’t read the law [on transparency of foreign influence], but heard that this law is Russian, is completely convinced that a law he hasn’t even read is bad.
As for sincerity, it only has value when backed by knowledge and intellect. A self-assured person without knowledge and intelligence is worse than a Russian tank,” Kobakhidze writes.
To confirm his thesis, the Prime Minister recalls the case of 29-year-old Gigla Berbikashvili, who shot 70-year-old Ilia Chavchavadze in 1907.
“He considered himself a progressive young man, while Chavchavadze was seen as an old-fashioned elder. Berbikashvili’s confidence, shared by his young comrades, was instilled by Bolshevik ideology. Similar methods are employed by pseudo-liberal ideology, which made the youth believe that they represent the epitome of sincerity and progressiveness in this country,” concludes Irakli Kobakhidze.
- Generation Z protest: Who’s leading the frontline against the ‘Russian law’ in Georgia. Video
- “Quo vadis, Georgia?” – EU Special representative for the South Caucasus
- “Building a database of violent individuals,”- the speaker of Georgian Parliament
“Anybody would find it disgraceful to equate the youth with Berbikashvili. When the Prime Minister does so, it reflects him as someone who has transcended to another dimension, confirming his government’s alienation from its own people,” reacted the President Salome Zurabishvili to Kobakhidze’s letter.
Meanwhile, social media users were particularly amused by Kobakhidze’s thesis regarding IQ, sparking a series of jokes right away.
