Ned Price: A personal attack on the ambassador unbecoming of a partnership
US State Department supports US Ambassador in Georgia after political attacks
US State Department spokesman Ned Price responds to the insults and attacks on Ambassador Kelly Degnan by “Georgian Dream” representatives and states that Ambassador Degnan has the full support of the State Department. Ned Price says, misinformation and personal attacks are unbecoming of how partners work.
Ned Price started the press conference with a statement on the issue of Georgia and Degnan – on his own initiative and without the journalists’ questions.
“I want to say: as you know, the European Council has given Georgia a European perspective along with a group of reforms that Georgia must implement in order to receive the candidate status.
We know that the majority of the Georgian population wants to join the European Union. We certainly support this aspiration,” said Price.
He explains that the recent rhetoric of some representatives of the Georgian government “seems” to try to prevent the Georgian population from striving for this goal:
“Ambassador Degnan, her team, and our Embassy in Georgia are committed to working with the people of Georgia and supporting their Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
According to Price, the US works in close cooperation on democratic reforms, economic development, and security in Georgia.
“We will continue to support the Georgian people,” concluded Ned Price.
What happened
Attacks on the American ambassador intensified after three MPs – Sozar Subar, Mikheil Kavelashvili, and Dimitri Khundadze – left the ruling party.
The aforementioned MPs believe that more information on political facts and events should be disseminated from behind the political scene, and “they need a free parliamentary mandate to voice” this, because they might face problems within the team.
MPs who left Georgian Dream soon published their first statement, which the government opponents already called an anti-Western conspiracy theory. According to former MPs, no one will grant Georgia candidate status even after 6 months, “if it does not join the war or impose sanctions on Russia.”
This was soon followed by Mikheil Kavelashvili’s open letter to the American ambassador, in which the MP calls on Kelly Degnan to publicly dissociate herself from the provocations of the National Movement and the demands of the technical government in order to protect the image of the US. After the letter was published, Kelly Degnan asked the ruling party: What is your motive?
The matter reached the point where the American ambassador was attacked by judges too. According to Lasha Chkhikvadze, the judge on Nika Gvaramia’s case, US Embassy employee Kevin Burke told him that Kelly Degnan was interested in why he passed a guilty verdict on Gvaramia’s case, and especially why he used imprisonment as a punishment.
Soon former members of the Supreme Council of Justice joined in on Chkhikvadze’s statement. Three judges – Zaza Kharebava, Shota Kadagidze, and Levan Gzirishvili – express their solidarity with judge Lasha Chkhikvadze and say that the US Embassy is interfering with the independence of a particular judge, which is an example of “indirect” pressure on other judges.
Another thing to mention is that several regional officials left Georgian Dream and their positions one after another to join Dimitri Khundadze, Mikheil Kavelashvili, and Sozar Subari. MPs who left the party, as well as the member of the Parliament of Georgia Mikheil Kavelashvili confront the American ambassador, Kelly Degnan.
US State Department supports US Ambassador in Georgia after political attacks
