The Daily Beat: 9 April

Today, Georgia marked the 36th anniversary of the April 9, 1989 massacre of pro-independence demonstrators in Tbilisi by the Soviet Army, in which 21 people were killed and hundreds injured by poison gas used by Soviet troops. Most of the victims were women beaten to death by the troops with spades. Up to 4,000 people were injured.

As the protesters of the anti-regime resistance remain after an all-night vigil on Rustaveli Avenue, commemorating the victims of the April 9 massacre, the GD authorities have not appeared at the April 9 memorial to pay tribute to those killed by Soviet troops.

GD’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze marked the occasion with a social media statement but conspicuously avoided any reference to Soviet Russia – the perpetrator of the 1989 massacre, which caused great resonance and condemnation among part of the population. Instead, the statement referred several times to “a foreign power” as the perpetrator of the violence on April 9, 1989.

On April 9, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili addressed the Senate of the Czech Republic during her official visit to Czechia, delivering what she called “a warning and a call to action.”In her remarks, Zurabishvili accused the Georgian Dream government of driving the country toward authoritarianism, saying its repressive policies have pushed Georgia “close to 1937” — a reference to Stalinist purges — and toward a Russian-style autocracy.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the European Commission’s stance on Georgia’s internal affairs, calling it “absolutely unacceptable” and accusing the EU of acting like a colonial power. “The attitude towards Georgia’s internal process in the European Commission is absolutely unacceptable. This is a behavior of colonialists. They try to look at the will of the Georgian people from the prism of their colonial past.” Aliyev told reporters.

During the debate, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs voiced strong concern over Georgia’s democratic backsliding. Rasa Juknevičienė, the EP’s permanent rapporteur on Georgia, denounced the October 2024 parliamentary elections as “falsified,” called for “immediate and well-coordinated sanctions” by EU member states against Bidzina Ivanishvili, and urged a review of both the visa-free regime and the EU- Georgia Association Agreement.