CANVAS “Condemns and Denies” Georgia Security Service Allegations

The Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a Serbian non-governmental organization, strongly denied the allegations of the Georgian security services that it was fomenting violent unrest in Georgia.

In an official statement, CANVAS said all of its programs and trainings, taught in over 50 countries, are based on the non-violent struggle curriculum that is publicly available online.

The statement reads that the State Security Service of Georgia “decided to create a national controversy out of nothing” since the content of the training course was previously known, held at a public location, and aimed “to support civil society organizations in Georgia to better equip them with tools and knowledge on community organization and advocating for positive social changes.”

The statement further says “no legal documents presenting an investigation” were given to the three CANVAS trainers that were interrogated on September 29, and neither could they make a statement since they were bound by non-disclosure rules.

The organization says the recent statements by SSSG are part of a “larger smear campaign that Georgian security agencies are conducting against civil society in Georgia and the CANVAS staff in Tbilisi” and links them “with successful civic campaign carried out in Tbilisi from February to March of 2023 against the so-called “Russian Law.”

The organization called on Georgia’s international partners “to take note” of these developments and to communicate about their inadmissibility to the Georgian officials while pledging to continue  to “support Georgian civil society organizations and the people of Georgia to secure the future they determine and deserve.”

Šikman: accusations “make no sense”

Siniša Šikman, one of the CANVAS trainers who was interrogated by the Georgian security service, told the Voice of America (VoA), “The worst thing in this accusations is that allegedly we are trying to foment some kind of violence in Georgia. This makes no sense. From the times of our struggle against [Yugoslav/Serbian strongmen Slobodan] Milošević, our key principle was that of non-violence.”

The activist says the Georgian security officers in their presentation “pulled out context some of the more dramatic depictions of our personal struggle” against Milošević. “They are not worried that we are going to kick the British out of Georgia simply because we also mentioned the example of the Boston Tea Party, are they?” asked Šikman, ironically.

He also recalled that he was being interviewed by security officials for six-and-a-half hours and his two colleagues for a slightly shorter period of time. According to Šikman, Geogian officers presented no official charges and gave no formal instructions. They were able to depart Tbilisi on a scheduled flight the next morning.

“Whatever the charges are, I am not concerned because these are lies,” Šikman told VoA, adding that the video materials “are pulled out of context and edited in a biased fashion, and I can prove that.”

Read Also:

• 02/10/23 – Security Service Says USAID-funded Trainers were Plotting to Foment Unrest in Georgia
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