Opposition Meets Head of Georgian Orthodox Church

Five politicians from the eight-party opposition coalition and the New Rights Party are holding a meeting with Ilia II, the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The meeting comes just a few hours after the Patriarch called on the opposition to end its hunger strike. He also called on the authorities to take steps to defuse tension.

The opposition said they would hold internal discussions and announce their response to the Patriarch’s call to end the hunger strike after the meeting.
 
Giorgi Khaindrava, an individual member of the eight-party coalition; Jondi Bagaturia, leader of the Georgian Troupe; Eka Beselia of the Movement for United Georgia; Koba Davitashvili, the leader of Party of People and MP Pikria Chikhradze of the New Rights Party are at the meeting with the Patriarch.

MP Zviad Dzidziguri, Conservative Party, who is on the twelfth day of a hunger strike, told journalists after the Patriarch’s appeal earlier today: “We reiterated our deep respect towards the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Representatives from the National Council [eight-party coalition] will meet with him and talk about the issues raised in the statement of the Patriarch.”

“We are going to meet with him to go into some of the details… We will talk about the details of the current situation and about issues that brought us to this crisis and what triggered us to launch the hunger strike,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rights Party, who is on the eleventh day of hunger strike, told journalists.

Meanwhile, a small group of hunger strikers from the National-Democratic Party said they were ending their protest in response to the Patriarch’s request. They had been on hunger strike in their office in Tbilisi.