Gamkrelidze: Only Our Mistake can Save Saakashvili

Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party – part of opposition Alliance for Georgia, said opposition should be cautious as “only our mistake can now save Saakashvili.”
 
“If we somehow go beyond legal frames or yield provocations that would only benefit Saakashvili; that type of scenario will be the only survival for him. Otherwise he has no chance. We should continue protesting patiently every day,” he said.

He also said that while the authorities offer a dialogue he could not see any sincere readiness from the ruling party and the President that they are ready to take meaningful and tangible compromises.

“They offer us a dialogue,” he said. “But what are they offering us? If he [President Saakashvili] wants a dialogue let him at first take concrete steps; for example let him replace [interior minister] Vano Merabishvili, for example, with [public defender] Sozar Surabi; or let him restore legal ownership of Imedi TV… But I do not believe he is capable of doing this, because he has allowed Maestro TV on air and it turned against him and he knows it very well.”

Gamkrelidze was speaking while guesting in the Maestro TV’s ‘Cell No 5’ – a type of reality TV show with singer Giorgi Gachechiladze, who is in a self-imposed ‘imprisonment’ in ‘cell’ packed with cameras. Gachechiladze, who launched ‘TV protest’ in late January, vows to stay there unless Saakashvili resigns. His show has become one of the key elements behind the opposition’s drive. Maestro TV covers the capital city Tbilisi and can also be watched by viewers in a small town of Telavi in eastern Georgia.
 
“Today I was often asked by foreign journalists: why are not you accepting this proposal by the authorities for direct election of mayor,” Gamkrelidze continued. “But it is the President who is source of crisis in this country and not a mayor or something else.
 
Echoing Gamkrelidze’s remakrs, Gubaz Sanikidze of the National Forum opposition party also said in the same TV show: “Ok, let’s say we are removing the demand of his resignation; then what? What is he offering us? Reform of electoral code?.. It’s ridiculous.”

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