Bakradze: Efforts Underway to Arrange Talks

Davit Bakradze, the parliamentary chairman, said efforts were underway to arrange a meeting with opposition leaders, which, he said, probably would take place on Friday.

“The [parliamentary] majority and the authorities were always ready for a dialogue. Today I, as the Parliamentary Chairman, want to express a concrete readiness. Today, at any time I am ready and the representatives of the [parliamentary] majority are ready to meet the representatives of the non-parliamentary opposition in order to launch a dialogue on those common issues, which, I hope, we are all concerned about,” Bakradze said in remarks aired by Rustavi 2 TV.

Bakradze made the comments following a joint statement by those opposition parties, which are behind the ongoing protest rallies, in which they called on President Saakashvili to hold a meeting.

“The society has heard the statements of the non-parliamentary opposition leaders. First and foremost we have to note the statement by Irakli Alasania,” Bakradze said, referring to remarks made with journalists on May 7 by leader of opposition Alliance for Georgia.

Alasania said: “I think it is urgent to hold a meeting as soon as possible. This meeting should be held without preconditions if we want to achieve real results.”

The opposition written joint statement, which was also joined by Alliance for Georgia, does not directly use the word “precondition;” however, the wording of the statement does not imply that the opposition was putting forth any precondition for the talks.

“We welcome if there is readiness for moving towards the process of a real dialogue, instead of setting ultimatums as they [the opposition leaders] were doing previously,” Bakradze said.

“The work over arranging this meeting has already started and I hope and I am sure that this meeting will definitely be held today,” he added.

Kakha Kukava, co-leader of the opposition Conservative Party, told Civil.Ge that the opposition would probably make a joint statement on the matter at 3pm local time on Friday.

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