Anti-occupation activists to launch public movement, run for 2020 elections

Anti-occupation activists, who have been protesting in front of the parliament of Georgia since June 20, have announced they will launch a public movement.

We have decided to accept Bidzina Ivanishvili’s challenge…. That if he does not care of our protest, our voice, our opinion, we will be radical”, Giga Makarashvili, one of the activists said at today’s gathering in Zugdidi, in the western region of Samegrelo.

He said the activists will be meeting with supporters in different towns to get ready for the 2020 parliamentary elections and win over “the regime” (referring to the ruling party). 

Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

Tbilisi protests were sparked when Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov took the seat of the Georgian parliamentary speaker to address the audience at the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy on June 20. 

• The rally following the developments in parliament was dispersed by police after a part of the demonstrators decided to storm the building.
• The Georgian Dream ruling party said that a “justified and peaceful” protest of people was transformed into violence due to the “provocative and destructive” actions by opposition members.
• Protests in Tbilisi continue as one of three demands of demonstrators remain unfulfilled – the resignation of then Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia (who is Prime Minister now).

On September 20, three months after the rally dispersal, anti-occupation activists are holding a large-scale rally. "Everything is just starting now. Come out in the country's service and become the part of history", they wrote in Facebook.