President Salome Zourabichvili began her speech at the European Parliament by addressing the ongoing pro-European protests in Georgia. She explained that people are taking to the streets because they believe an existential issue is at stake. She drew a parallel to 1921 when Georgia was occupied by the Soviets.
News
Trending stories
- 1 Marauding Kadyrovites Among Masked Raiders in Tbilisi - Editor's Column
- 2 President’s Lawsuit on Elections Registered by Constitutional Court
- 3 Gakharia Urges Ambassadors Not to Attend Parliament's First Session
- 4 Chorchana Checkpoint, Drones, and Cigarette Smuggling Discussed During the Meeting in Ergneti
- 5 Investigation Launched into Obstruction of Journalists at Rallies
- 6 Presidential Candidate Mikheil Kavelashvili Lacks Higher Education
“It is a crucial time because at some days and some moments, we feel like we are in 1921, that things are repeating themselves. And that is probably what explains the courage and the determination with which the Georgian people are today reacting to what they see as a depossession of their freedom, of their future,” Zourabichvili said.
According to the president, the protests in Georgia began earlier than 21 days ago, on November 28, when the Georgian Dream announced the suspension of the EU accession process until the end of 2028.
“These protests were immediately after the elections. These protests were this spring when the Russian law was reintroduced a second time. These protests were last spring when Russian law was introduced for the first time. And these protests have been - the specificity or the characteristic of Georgia - each time and every time when the people of Georgia felt that there was a threat, a danger to what they feel at their freedom, at their Europeanity, at their independence.
Never has there been a massive protest in Georgia about social conditions - and there would be many reasons for that, because the situation there too is not very satisfactory to say the least - but the only time when people massively in Georgia take up to the streets, it's when they feel that it is an existential question that is at stake and that is the case today,” Zourabichvili said.
She also emphasized that the protest movement, which now involves the entire society, is peaceful and not revolutionary.
“And this is a very peaceful movement, a very massive civil disobedience movement in a way, and that is asking only two things: Give me my voice back because of the stolen elections; Give me my future, and my European future back and that is a request for new elections.
It is not a revolutionary movement in that sense, because there are no demands about who should be thrown out of which power. It's really - let's get back to elections in a free and fair environment and let's see where the will of the people in Georgia today which they are trying to show on the streets but let's see it in a democratic way in the ballot,” said Salome Zourabichvili.
