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Georgian Protest Leader Calls On 'All Political Parties' To Join Push

RFE/RL June 02, 2018

The organizer of antigovernment rallies in Tbilisi urged "all political parties" in Georgia to join the protest movement as demonstrations continued into the early morning hours of June 3 in the South Caucasus nation.

"Until now, I have been trying to appeal only to the public for support," Zaza Saralidze said late on June 2 in a speech that was broadcast live by local television stations.

"But now, I can see how instigators are attempting to drive a wedge among us in this peaceful rally.

"Now, I call on all Georgian political parties to join forces and to dismantle this system together," he told the crowd.

It remains unclear if Georgia's opposition political parties will join in support of the street protests.

The leader of the opposition Democratic Georgia party, Nino Burjanadze, was quoted by Interfax as saying his group "did not intend to politicize this action," although he added that it did not mean "opposition parties are giving up their political struggle."

"Rather, it means we are not using this process for our own political ends," he added.

Protests continued past midnight on June 2 and into June 3 in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi, with some activists, including Saralidze, vowing to remain in tents along the main Rustaveli Avenue through the morning. Organizers said another rally was planned for June 3 at 4 p.m.

The mass rallies began out on May 31 as a protest against the verdict in the trial of two young men suspected of murdering Saralidze's teenage son.

Protesters originally called on chief prosecutor Irakli Shotadze to step down, but after Shotadze resigned, demonstrators increased their demands for the entire government to quit.

Saralidze said demonstrators will not relent on their demands despite efforts by Georgian President Georgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to address the protesters' calls for reforms in the justice system.

Saralidze and the protesters were not deterred on June 1 after a Tbilisi City Court handed down prison sentences of 10 years and nine years for the two suspects who the court earlier found guilty of murder and attempted murder of Saralidze's son and another teenage boy stabbed to death in a brawl in December.

Saralidze has insisted that people other than the two suspects who were put on trial were responsible for his son's death and escaped punishment because their relatives worked in the prosecutor's office.

"We are against injustice. We are against the arbitrariness of the authorities and the rotten political system, which must collapse," Saralidze told the rally on June 1.

Media reported that demonstrations in sympathy with Saralidze have occurred in towns around the country, including Akhaltsikhe, Borjomi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi.

Late on June 1, a small counterdemonstration was organized by nationalists and religious activists, including leaders of the hard-line March of the Georgians movement, near the Tbilisi Concert Hall.

The protests in Georgia followed weeks of unrelated street demonstrations in neighboring Armenia that forced the prime minister to resign and led to the election of Nikol Pashinian, an opposition activist and politician, to the premiership.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Georgian Service, RFE/RL's Amos Chapple, Civil.ge, AFP, Reuters, RIA Novosti, 1TV, BNE IntelliNews, and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-tbilisi- protests-continue-leader- calls-on-political-parties/29267739.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.