Opposition Calls for Rally to Protest ‘Government’s Violence’
The leaders of the opposition New Rights, Republican and Conservative parties said at a joint news conference on June 1, that they intend to launch public movement against the, as they put it, “violence of the authorities” and called on Georgian citizens and politicians to gather in one of the parks in downtown Tbilisi in the evening on July 1.
“We should use any non-force methods against the violence used by the authorities,” leader of the Conservatives party Koba Davitashvili said on June 1.
This joint briefing followed a fist-fighting which broke out in the Parliament on July 1 with the involvement of dozens of parliamentarians from both the opposition and ruling National Movement party.
The fist-fighting broke out when the parliamentarians launched debates over the unrests which started in downtown Tbilisi after the protesters, sympathizing two arrested Georgian athletes, blocked the main street of the capital city on Rustaveli Avenue.
One of the leaders of the Republican Party Levan Berdzenishvili said at the joint news conference that the opposition leaders came on the scene on the Rustaveli Avenue after the riot police launched use of excessive force, including against those people who had nothing common with the earlier rally by relatives and friends of arrested athletes and were just by-passers.
