Parliamentary Minority Leader Calls for Restraint to Prevent New Revolution

There is neither need nor necessary resources for a new revolution in today’s Georgia and such a scenario bears risk of throwing Georgia into chaos, similar to the one of early 90s, MP Giorgi Targamadze, leader of Christian-Democratic Party and chairman of the parliamentary minority, said.

“To claim that if we do not save democracy and save the country on April 9 or April 10, then it will be already late – this is the road towards revolution,” he said in an interview with the Georgian newspaper, Versia (Version), published on March 6.

A group of opposition parties are planning to launch permanent protest rallies from April 9 to demand President Saakashvili’s resignation.

“We also believe that Saakashvili is the major part of the problem, but our tactic differs from the one of radical opposition and the Saakashvili’s resignation does not top the list of our party’s tasks,” MP Giorgi Targamadze said. “We believe that it [Saakashvili’s resignation] is something, which will become irreversible result of those reforms, which should occur in the country.”

He said that he saw no necessary “resources” in the country needed “for a rapid change of the authorities.” He then continued in this context, that the Saakashvili’s government differed from the one of ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze “in essence.”

“Shevardnadze’s government was weak and [in 2003, during the Rose Revolution] he no longer enjoyed with the support of such powerbases like Zurab Zhvania or Kakha Targamadze [who served as interior minister under Shevardnadze’s presidency]. All the structures previously subordinated to him went out of his [Shevardnadze’s] control [by the time when the Rose Revolution happened],” Targamadze said.

Although some figures have recently defected from Saakashvili, he continued, none of them was a heavyweight enough “to have a decisive say in the decision making process.” Even Nino Burjanadze, who held the highest official post after the President – speaker of the parliament – acknowledged in one of his recent interviews that her influence was limited because of not having her own political team.

“The mistakes of the past should be analyzed in order not to get locked in the same vicious circle tomorrow,” Giorgi Targamadze said. “How long should the authorities and the opposition compete with each other in radicalism? It makes no difference who will become a detonator of revolution – the authorities or the opposition. Today the Georgian society can assess threats more adequately than the Georgian political forces. Therefore, I am rather optimistic in this regard. Presently there is economic crisis and each wise Georgian understands that the way of settlement of economic problems does not pass through destabilization.”

“We should not sink in a new chaos, especially when the risks have increased. Russia will try to do its own job with our own hands and incite us against each other, as well to make political confrontation in Georgia to grow into a civil confrontation and Georgia has already witnessed it in the past.”

He also said that the authorities should “become more adequate towards public’s real demands and launch real political reforms” and by doing so the government would also contribute to averting the revolutionary scenario of developments.

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