In the streets of the capital of Georgia, the opposition has once again battled the government for the fifth consecutive afternoon. As night fell on Monday, thousands of citizens gathered once again in front of Parliament in Tbilisi. The riot police, as in previous days, fired water cannons to repel the protesters, who were launching fireworks. The protests spread and There are already more than 200 detainees.
Georgian President Salomé Zurabishvil, who is in confrontation with the country’s government, has asked Western countries to back what she called a “national movement” in support of Georgia’s integration with the European Union. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has ruled out the possibility of talks between the Government and the opposition, which has boycotted Parliament and supported street protests.
Demonstrations have not stopped in Georgia since November 28. They began after the authorities announced thesuspension of negotiations for Georgia’s accession to the EU. The mobilizations take place both in the capital and in other cities.
Georgian authorities have accused European politicians and the “fifth column” of organizing the protests, and the Kremlin has described what was happening as “an attempted Orange Revolution”in reference to the 2004 protests in Ukraine against the electoral fraud then perpetrated by Moscow’s preferred candidate. Former Russian President Dimitri Medvedev warned Sunday that Georgia is “moving rapidly down the Ukrainian path, towards the dark abyss,” predicting it would end “very badly.”
Georgia’s ombudsman said 124 of the 156 people arrested at protests had complained that police had used violence against them, calling this figure “very worrying.” Shortly after, the Ministry of the Interior indicated that 224 protesters have been detained on administrative charges and another three on criminal charges.
According to the Minister of Health, Mikheil Sarjveladze, in the last 24 hours, 37 people have been hospitalized, including 24 activists and 12 police officers. Georgia’s Interior Ministry went further, noting that 21 police officers were injured during protests from Sunday to Monday, and that 113 have been injured since the start of the current unrest.
Sarjveladze has highlighted the seriousness of the injuries suffered by both the activists and the police, emphasizing that the serious injuries suffered by the officers were caused by the pyrotechnics fired at them.
The president shared in X that “the majority of the arrested protesters have head and face injuriesbroken facial bones, eye sockets and open wounds. “They have been subjected to systematic beatings between arrest and transport to already overcrowded detention centers, lawyers reported.”
Discontent has spread throughout the country. Teachers and students from schools in different cities in Georgia have gone on strike. Ilia Topuriaa Georgian and Spanish martial arts fighter, with a large following in the country, wrote on Instagram: “I oppose the decision to end our accession negotiations with the European Union. I’m ashamed to see how they treat kids.. This is not called freedom.” The ruling Georgian Dream party, for its part, maintains that it is acting to defend the country’s sovereignty against outside interference.
In a joint move with its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, Lithuania said it would deny entry to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream (and considered shadow prime minister) and 10 Georgian Interior Ministry officials “due to their responsibility for human rights abuses. Among the sanctioned officials are also the Minister of the Interior, Vakhtang Gomelauri; and Deputy Interior Ministers Shalva Bedoidze, Ioseb Chelidze, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze and Giorgi Butkhuzi.