New Provocations Heat Up in Nation of Georgia
Oct. 6—Overnight Oct. 4-5, thousands of violent demonstrators gathered outside Georgia’s presidential palace in Tbilisi and attempted to break in. Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Oct. 5 that the demonstrators aimed to “overthrow the constitutional order” and he claimed that more than 7,000 people participated. Riot police were deployed, using tear gas and water cannons. The Georgian health minister said that 21 security personnel and 6 demonstrators were injured in the confrontation.
Georgia’s State Security Service claimed that a weapons cache, along with explosives, were found hidden in a forest near the capital, which they alleged had been intended for use in the attack. They had reportedly been purchased by a Georgian worker with a member of an armed group operating in Ukraine.
The protests erupted after local Georgian elections on Saturday, Oct. 4, saw Kobakhidze’s Georgia Dream party secure large gains, winning majorities in all municipalities and 80% of the total vote, according to Al Jazeera. At least some of the opposition parties boycotted the election.
Kobakhidze accused European officials of meddling in the protest efforts, including EU Ambassador to Georgia Pawel Herczynski directly. Kobakhidze said the ambassador bore “special responsibility” for the protests and called on him to “distance himself and strictly condemn everything that is happening on the streets of Tbilisi,” according to Georgian news agency Interpress.
It appears that the government has stabilized the situation. Kobakhidze said on Oct. 5: “As for yesterday’s events, the attempt to overthrow the government, this attempt has failed. Over the past four years, we have already seen the fifth attempt to stage a Maidan in our country. Over four years, the ‘Nazis’ have already tried five times to overthrow the government, to stage a Maidan.” This is an explicit reference to the events that took place in the Ukraine in 2014, organized by the Queen of the Ukraine, former State Department official Victoria Nuland that overthrew a duly elected pro-Russian government.