Ruling party Honorary Chair: Georgia should be governed by authorities “elected by Georgian people”

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and Honorary Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the former Prime Minister of the country, on Monday told a public rally in support of the domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence outside the Parliament in the capital city of Tbilisi that Georgia should be “governed by authorities elected by the Georgian people”.

Ivanishvili told the rally the country was led by a “strong and unified team of professionals who know the value of one’s homeland, its independence, and sovereignty”.

He said it was “impossible for the radical opposition who have no [approval] rating” and non-governmental organisations to “bring about a change of Government”, while adding the reality “does not mean that the Government should lose its vigilance and not ensure creation of a long-term guarantee for Georgia’s sovereignty”.

Ivanishvili emphasised the bill, which calls for the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, served to “strengthen the sovereignty” of Georgia.

He told the crowds the country had gone through “difficult years” between 2004-2012, when it was “ruled not by a government elected by the people, but by an externally appointed revolutionary committee, a foreign agency” in reference to the United National Movement party, now in opposition.

He claimed UNM Government President Mikheil Saakashvili, Former Secretary of the National Security Council of the country, Giga Bokeria, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili, Deputy Prosecutor General, Nika Gvaramia, Defence Minister David Kezerashvili and others had been appointed as leaders in the Governemnt after a “revolution organised by NGOs”.

The rule of people appointed from outside in an undemocratic manner clearly demonstrated how severe the inevitable consequences of the loss of freedom, independence, and sovereignty can be. The bloody regime led prisons to overflow, tortured prisoners, cost hundreds of innocent people their lives, robbed thousands of businesspeople, rigged a number of elections, seized the media and lost 20 percent of Georgia’s territories”, he added in reference to consequences of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
 

Photo: Georgian Dream

The party official also claimed “many people think that the main reason for the crimes of the previous Government was the inhumane, sadistic, and unpatriotic nature of Saakashvili and his accomplices”, adding “in reality, everything they did was ordered and directed by their masters from outside”.

It was for this reason that the foreign politicians who declare Saakashvili, Gvaramia and Kezerashvili as innocent lambs and demand the punishment of the incumbent authorities today greenlit all the regime’s unseemly behaviour at the time”, he alleged.

Today, these foreigners are motivated by the desire to bring back the inhumane and sadistic dictatorship of the same people to Georgia, which we will not allow at any cost. When we talk about greenlighting, we should also remember that the regime’s sadism enjoyed full support of the NGOs”, he also claimed.

Ivanishvili also told the rally “pseudo-elites nurtured by a foreign country” had “no homeland - they do not love their country or their people because they do not really consider them to be their own. On the contrary, such people are embarrassed by their country and its people [...] Such people are easy to control from the outside because they are devoid of all principles”.

He emphasised the characteristic was “the face of today’s radical opposition, and this was the face of these people when they were in power”, adding in 2012, when the Georgian Dream party had replaced the “bloody regime” of politicians, he had thought he had completed his “mission in full”, but added it “later turned out that these achievements were not enough”.

We must still fight for freedom and sovereignty in order to follow Ilia Chavchavadze’s counsel, whereby ‘we must belong to ourselves’”, he said in reference to the 19th century public figure.

“Therefore, as a matter of principle and dedication, I personally will continue to fight for the full restoration of the sovereignty of Georgia, our motherland”, Ivanishvili told the rally, adding the UNM would “strictly answer for all the crimes it has committed against the Georgian state and the Georgian people over two decades” following the upcoming parliamentary elections in October.