Protesters Rally at Municipality

Protesters rallied for few hours outside the Tbilisi municipality as part of ongoing street protests on May 28.

Protesters at first gathered at the Sports Palace by noon and then marched in a drizzle towards the municipality headquarters. Nino Burjanadze, leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia; Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of New Rights Party and Davit Usupashvili, co-leader of Republican Party – both from Alliance for Georgia; Zviad Dzidziguri, leader of Conservative Party; Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way; Eka Beselia of Movement for United Georgia were among the opposition leaders present at the rally.

“This building [referring to the Tbilisi Mayor’s Office] will become a new target of our protests,” Mamuka Katsitadze of the New Rights Party told protesters. “This building has turned into a nest of the Saakashvili regime.”

Since the launch of protest rallies on April 9, the Parliament has been closed by the authorities citing that the measure would prevent lawmakers from direct contact with protests and avoid possible tensions. Senior lawmakers are instead frequently gathering in the Tbilisi Mayor’s Office.

“These types of targeted protests will continue in following days as well. But we will also resort to picketing of strategic facilities as well,” Zviad Dzidziguri told the rally.

Opposition leaders told supporters at the rally that one of the reasons of their decision to hold the protest outside the municipality office was Mayor Gigi Ugulava’s “provocative move” to come to the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the time when there were opposition leaders and thousands of protesters, who gathered in the main cathedral after rallying on the national stadium on May 26. Combined with the Patriarch’s statement, arrival of one of the key figures in the Saakashvili’s administration in the cathedral immediately triggered speculation among protesters that the opposition was making a deal with the authorities.

In her address to the protesters outside the municipality office, Nino Burjanadze explained the opposition’s decision to block the railway lines in the Tbilisi’s central station late on May 26 for three hours by an attempt by the opposition leaders to avoid a possible bloodshed as emotions ran high among protesters that night.

“Some say it was an irresponsible move,” Burjanadze said. “But it was very responsible decision on the part of the opposition leaders and one should know the exact context before making [negative] assessments of that move.”

She said that there were some calls among protesters late on May 26 to storm the public TV headquarters. “If we have allowed them to go to the television station, blood would have been shed,” Burjanadze said.

Davit Berdzenishvili of the Republican Party told protesters that there were “many provocateurs” on the Rustaveli Avenue that night trying to incite protesters to storm the public TV headquarters.

Nino Burjanadze also apologized to neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia “for a temporary problem they might faced when we have blocked the railway.”

“We do not want to create problems, but when there is no other way we have to struggle including through these methods. Their cargo was delayed much longer during the August war because of Saakashvili’s irresponsible decisions,” she said.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)