Tens of thousands of people are standing in the center of Tbilisi demanding the resignation of Saakashvili and for parliamentary elections to be held. The Georgian president is still inclined to play down the importance of the rally, calling it a “bad parody of the Rose Revolution”
The current events in Tbilisi resemble those that occurred in November 2003, during the Rose Revolution. Once again, tens of thousands of people have taken to Rustaveli Prospect and blockaded government buildings. But if Mikhail Saakashvili then stood together with the people and shouted “resign” to Eduard Shevardnadze, then now he is watching with despair as tens of thousands of people in the center of Tbilisi call for him to resign. During the four years that Saakashvili has been in power, the people have become disillusioned with him. Being unable to cope with the social and economic crisis in the country, Mikhail Saakashvili tried to create the image of an external enemy in the form of Russia, in order to consolidate Georgian society, and divert attention from its internal problems.
On 2 November in the center of Tbilisi a protest rally began in which nearly 100 thousand people took part. On the first day of the rally the main demand of those who had gathered was to appoint a date for the parliamentary elections in spring 2008. The problem is that the Georgian parliament, which is controlled by pro-presidential forces, has decided to extend its authority until the fall of 2008.
The main mistake of the Georgian authorities was that not only did they not enter into a dialogue with the protesters, but they tried in every way to provoke them. Without waiting for a response from the government, the opposition decided to make the rally indefinite, but its organization could not have been worse. No mobile toilets were set up at the site, and no one thought about where the thousands of Georgians from different parts of the country attending the rally in Tbilisi would spend the night. No one took care of feeding people. At the moment up to 10 thousand people are standing on Rustaveli Prospect, and their slogans have become much tougher than on the first day of demonstrations.
The Georgian opposition has now put five demands to the authorities:
1) the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili; 2) for parliamentary elections to be held in April 2008; 3) a change in the principle of holding majority; 4) a change in the principle of integrating electoral commissions and 5) release of “political prisoners” from Georgian prisons.
Mikhail Saakashvili refused to comply with almost all the demands of the protestors. The Georgian president explained the reasons for the mass protests. These were not wild corruption in the country, the mass arrests of opposition figures, or even the poverty of the population. In all, as always with Mikhail Saakashvili, Russia was guilty. “This whole situation in Georgia is happening before the elections in Russia, and the goal is to cause unrest in the country ... It is clear as noonday that in the event of unrest in Georgia, Russia will use this situation for its own purposes,” the Georgian president warned his citizens.
The irony is that the Georgian opposition is far from pro-Russian. And it is pointless hoping that with the departure of Saakashvili relations between Georgia and Russia will become warmer. The Americans, having assessed the entire breadth of the demonstration, immediately tried to find out about the opposition’s views on Georgia’s future policies. At an emergency meeting in Tbilisi opposition leaders assured Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried that they did not question the expediency of the “Euro-Atlantic” orientation of Georgia, and that in the event that they come to power they intend to support all of Washington’s regional initiatives.
The main priority now for the protest leaders is maintaining the peaceful nature of the actions and avoiding provocations that the Georgian authorities may regard as a coup attempt.
But this is unlikely to happen. The rally lacks a leader. The only person who can now ignite the crowd on Rustaveli Prospekt, the only around who opposition can now unite is former defense minister Irakly Okruashvili. But before the rally, “the golden hawk of Georgian politics,” as they call the former defense minister in Georgia, flew to Munich.
In an interview with the Georgian television channel Imedi, Okruashvili, having apologized to the protesters for the fact that he could not be with them, said: “Your days Misha, are numbered, so I am sure I will soon return to Georgia”.
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Gevorg Mirzayan
Photo: Reuters
