Citizens party leader refuses to join opposition rally called by UNM

Aleko Elisashvili, the leader of the Citizens opposition party, on Thursday said he would not join the rally scheduled by a part of the domestic opposition in central Tbilisi on April 9 due to its connection to the United National Movement opposition party.

Speaking to the media, Elisashvili noted the date for the demonstration coincided with a “tragic day” for Georgia - the April 9, 1989 violent dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi by Soviet authorities that saw 20 protesters killed. 

Elisashvili said the connotations of the date were “very painful”, adding he “always paid tribute” to the memory of the victims on anniversaries of the sensitive event of the contemporary history of the country.

But he added it was also “unacceptable” for him to join the likes of Vano Merabishvili, the former Interior Minister in the UNM Government and now an opposition figure, at “any rally”.

Merabishvili was in 2014 convicted in a case of the violent dispersal of an opposition demonstration in Tbilisi in 2011 by UNM authorities, with dozens of peaceful protesters injured and illegally arrested in the crackdown. 

Levan Khabeishvili, the new Chair of the UNM who was elected in the position in January, on Tuesday called on the public to join the protest, which is set to run on central Rustaveli Avenue to “force” the ruling Georgian Dream authorities to fulfil the conditions outlined by the European Union last year for granting its membership candidate status to Georgia. 

Accusing UNM of committing a “number of crimes” while in office and rejecting the Government's calls to join the work for the bloc’s candidate status, Georgian Dream members have said the opposition party has no “moral right” to host the rally on the symbolic date.