Police arrest several participants of Tbilisi Pride Week counter-protests
The organisers of Pride Week announced they had to be evacuated from the territory. Photo via 1TV.ge
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Police arrested several participants of a right-wing rally against the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week in the city on Saturday, the local media announced.
Clashes between the police and the participants of the rally began after the latter tried to enter the closed area designated for the Pride festival.
The organisers of Pride Week announced they had to be evacuated from the territory.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry on Friday pledged to ensure safety for the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week, urged organisers and participants of the potential counter-protests to comply with the law, “legitimate police requests” and refrain from violating the freedom of assembly, adding the law enforcement units would be prepared to “maintain law and order and security” in locations set to be used by organisers of the celebration.
The body also said it was in communication with the organisers of the events designed to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and highlight the rights of queer people, as well as with the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, the United Nations and other international organisations, and diplomatic corps to ensure safe hosting of the events.
Earlier today, President Salome Zourabichvili called on the relevant agencies to ensure the safe conduct of the Pride Festival, citing freedom of speech and expression as a “fundamental human right, and anything that contradicts this principle is unacceptable”.
In their statement, Tbilisi Pride said no “street march” would be held as part of this year’s festival, and only registered attendees would be hosted in a “safe, closed space” for events of the programme.
In her recent comments on the incident, Zourabichvili criticised the Interior Ministry for not being able to prevent violence during the festival and noted two constitutional rights - freedom of expression and freedom of assembly - were violated in the country.
Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze on Saturday said the participants of the Tbilisi Pride Week had been safely evacuated from the area designated for the Pride festival amid the counter-protest.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry on Friday pledged to ensure safety for the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week, ahead of the concluding event of the queer community festival in the Georgian capital on Saturday.
The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church and several other religious denominations in the country on Friday claimed Tbilisi Pride, the LGBTQ rights group that organises the annual festival of the same title, was engaged in “changing the cultural code” rather than protecting the rights of sexual minorities, and called for legal changes to address the “propaganda” and “prevent threats” to “civil peace”.
The United Nations and the European Union representation in Georgia, along with 28 foreign embassies in the country, on Wednesday welcomed the increased public support for the protection of minority rights in Georgia but expressed concerns of “stalled progress” in ensuring their protection.
The United Nations Development Programme issued a joint statement signed by diplomatic representations on Wednesday that welcomed the successful completion of the Tbilisi Pride Week and expressed hope the event would mark a “step forward” in ensuring LGBTQI+ community’s rights.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Saturday condemned “all kinds of violence” and thanked police officers for their efforts to ensure the safety of the participants of Tbilisi Pride Week and journalists.
Georgian Public Defender Levan Ioseliani on Saturday called on the country’s Interior Ministry to respond “timely and appropriately” to all violations of law during the counter-protest of the Tbilisi Pride Week in the Georgian capital on Saturday.
Georgian police arrested two individuals on the charges of petty hooliganism and disobedience to police officers during the counter-protest of Tbilisi Pride Week in Tbilisi on Saturday, the Georgian Interior Ministry told local news agency InterPressNews on Sunday.