Georgian PM thanks Interior Minister, law enforcement for defending Constitutional order at Tbilisi protest rally

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Saturday expressed his gratitude to the country’s Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and law enforcement for “repelling an attack on the Constitutional order and safeguarding Georgia's sovereignty and independence” at Friday’s protest rally in Tbilisi against the Government’s decision to suspend the country’s European Union accession talks until 2028.

 At a press conference, the PM stressed Vakhtang Gomelauri and the Interior Ministry had acted “with a standard higher than American and European standards and by adhering to the principle of proportionality, [they] prevented the most serious attack on the Constitutional order”.

The murder of several people and digging out of the eyes of several people would be the minimum result that such a rally would have ended with, if not the [current] Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and if there had been Vano Merabishvili [the former UNM Government Interior Minister] or Giorgi Gakharia [the former Interior Minister]. 

The head of the Government called on police officers to “demonstrate maximum patience and refrain from exercising excessive force”, adding “there were several unpleasant incidents [at yesterday’s rally] that we should not allow in the future”, as such incidents “are used by the radical opposition and its violent groups to cover up their brutal violence”.

Kobakhidze also claimed “yesterday's violent rally had nothing to do with political protest” and pointed out the developments were going according to the report of the McCain Institute, a Washington-based think tank, which suggested that the "EU could consider a pause in visa-free travel for Georgians”, published in September.

It was clear from the very beginning that the radical opposition and its foreign patrons would not accept defeat in the [last month’s general] elections and would confront the state with violence. Regarding this, the first step was to declare the democratic elections as rigged, without providing any evidence”, the PM said.

He also noted “the violence we saw in Tbilisi yesterday and the day before was a logical continuation of the process” of the recognition of the results of last month's parliamentary elections by the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, which “has become a target of attack from the radical opposition and its patrons”.