Tsutskiridze Urges Citizens to Support Political Parties

Levan Tsutskiridze, leader of the Freedom Square, called on citizens to support political parties while speaking at a rally of the Opposition Alliance. According to him, it will be impossible to achieve the change everyone wants without strengthening the parties.

Tsutskiridze told gathered citizens that in the coming days the opposition will offer society various initiatives, and participation in them is important. According to him, an even larger rally is planned for November 28.

According to him, the lawsuit on banning parties does not concern his party, Freedom Square, specifically today and now, yet he and his comrades still came to the rally. Tsutskiridze said that witnesses to crimes against Georgia's democracy, freedom and multiparty system must still raise their voices and gather, regardless of whether this concerns a specific party or politician.

Tsutskiridze stated that the Bidzina Ivanishvili group is trying to officially take away the achievement won by the national independence movement. According to him, they say that a one-party dictatorship and a personality cult of Ivanishvili must be established in Georgia, while citizens must become obedient and silent crowds instead of free people. He calls this a Russian bloc-post against freedom, dignity and democracy, and calls for defeating it and returning the state to the people.

According to his assessment, protest is necessary and is the basis of resistance, but it is not enough. Tsutskiridze believes that in the near future better political organization, discipline and greater trust in one another will be needed.

He asks citizens to stand by the parties and to take the status of their members, donors, supporters and disseminators of their message. Tsutskiridze noted that this is needed not because the parties are infallible, but because democracy and the state cannot be regained without political organization. He urged people not to follow propaganda suggesting that everyone in politics is bad, and added that there are worthy people in every party.

Tsutskiridze called for even more people to gather at the November 28 rally. According to him, it was on this day that it was officially announced that Georgia is abandoning the path of official choice. He views the banning of parties, the arrest of people, violence against young people and the closure of independent universities as an attempt to deprive the country of its statehood and identity, and he claims the goal is to bring Georgia under full Russian control.

"Our strength lies in the fact that after so long and so much repression, we are still many and the spirit fighting for freedom is still alive in Georgia," said Levan Tsutskiridze.