Tsiklauri: Party Abolition Would Start an Era of Dissent

"Coalition for Change" leader Nugzar Tsiklauri says that if parties are abolished, an era of dissent will begin, and the individual and the state will be set against each other. He made the statement on the "Free Studio" program on Palitranews.

The opposition figure says this undermines the existence of Georgia as a modern and independent state. According to him, through the actions of the Georgian Dream, it is not parties but the citizen of Georgia who is being abolished, as they are being deprived of the right to vote.

Tsiklauri believes the processes go beyond legal frameworks and aim not only to abolish political will but also to declare Georgia an aggressor in the international arena, which will ultimately make the country's integration into the European space impossible.

"Everyone understands that in reality there is no legal battle. No one expects that lawyers will say their word, prosecutors will say their word, and judges will make a decision based on that. We probably need to split this lawsuit into two parts. The so-called facts presented in the accusation, that the Georgian government allegedly promoted Russian domination and Russian penetration here in 2004-2012, which is a direct assignment from the Russian government, directly repeats the claim that Russia had everywhere in the international arena. The political refrain that Georgia started the war is now an attempt to bring this into the constitutional framework. Russia wants the Constitutional Court of Georgia to itself acknowledge that Georgia allegedly is an aggressor against Russia, which is a severe blow and a betrayal of generations, including those who fought for Georgia's territorial integrity", said Tsiklauri.

According to him, by the Dream's calculation, the political will of up to a million people is being prohibited. If we add to this the deprivation of voting rights for hundreds of thousands of people who have left the country, the citizen of Georgia is effectively being abolished. According to Tsiklauri's assessment, on the one hand, this is an attempt to restore the Russian order and to annul the April 9 Act of Independence, and on the other hand, it is an attack on democracy, which makes Georgia's existence as a modern state and its integration into the European space impossible.

"If parties are abolished, the era of dissidents is coming. If they make this decision, which is highly likely, the era of dissent clearly begins, the confrontation of the individual and the state with each other, the confrontation of truth and evil with each other. Now they are not abolishing political parties, they are abolishing the citizen of Georgia", said Tsiklauri.

During the program, he referred to the party "Gakharia for Georgia" and noted that after entering parliament, their leader fled the country, while they themselves have become objects of beatings and violence.

"Its [Giorgi Gakharia's] political party entered parliament, and the logic was: come on, let's use the rostrum. As some people said earlier, that we should join the Communist Party and destroy it from within, this is an unimaginable stupidity, that you enter somewhere under a dictatorship, in the walled-off situation it created, as a result of falsified elections, and do something. Have we not seen what they got? After they entered parliament, their leader has fled the country, they themselves were beaten in that parliament, there is no issue on which they will stand out and anyone will take them into account. Excuse me, even if you 'play along' with everything and they still throw you out of the country, even if you are still an object of beatings, that is what we are talking about here", said Tsiklauri.

Regarding the detention of journalist Vakho Sanaia over a post published on social media, Tsiklauri said that this points to the government's weakness, "since it has no strength, that is why it fights journalists".

"This is the situation we are heading toward, that people can be jailed over "Facebook" posts, jailed for standing on the sidewalk. This seems like strength, but at the same time, it shows very great powerlessness, because the "Georgian Dream", when it had political power, did not tighten laws, it made them more liberal, because it felt it had popular support and did not need only and exclusively a bayonet. Today, since it has no strength, that is why it fights journalists, even small children and soldiers", said Tsiklauri.