The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.comSergeant Narek Gareginyan (born in 2000), a contract serviceman of the border guard of the National Security Service, was injured as a result of a mine explosion in the area adjacent to the Church of the Holy Mother of God in the Voskepar community of Tavush province, the National Security Service informs.
Narek Gareginyan’s life is not in danger. He is being transferred to a medical facility in Yerevan.
Probe into the circumstances of the incident is under way.
Following the June 4 Helsinki Commission’s congressional hearing on supporting Georgia’s sovereignty and democracy at which testimonies were delivered by the EU Integration Program Manager at the Civil Society Foundation and Georgia Country Consultant at the European Endowment for Democracy Ivane Chkhikvadze and Senior Fellow at Chatham House and former Georgian Ambassador to the EU Natalie Sabanadze, the ruling party has unleashed a targeted bullying campaign against the two witnesses.
What prompted the angry comments from the GD officials and the special attention of the pro-government TV channels was Chkhikvadze and Sabanadze’s detailed description of the democratic backsliding of Georgia, of ongoing persecution of the dissenting opinion and violence by the law-enforcers and government-paid thugs, as well as the plea they voiced at the hearing to impose sanctions against those undermining the democracy in the country and help protect Georgia’s democracy.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and ruling party MPs, in a vivid similarity of comparisons and descriptions, compared Chkhikvadze and Sabanadze to Sergo Orjonikidze, a Georgian Bolshevik who led the Russian-Soviet occupation of Georgia. PM Irakli Kobakhidze claimed Chkhikvadze and Sabanadze acted in the same way as the traitors of Georgia did a century ago, “betraying their country this time in Washington, instead of Moscow.” He called their testimonies a “treason” and noted that he expects this “treason” to take place in other countries too. “If a person is a traitor, he will betray you equally in Washington, Brussels and Berlin,” he said.
Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili lashed out at the two witnesses saying: “We have seen Orjonikidzes of the 21st century, who have snitched on their homeland to the legislature of another country, and who have testified against their own country…before the representatives of the legislature of another country. I don’t know what greater shame can happen to a person than this… Their nature is that of Sergo Orjonikidze, just as he brought the 11th Army to Georgia, so they want to bring sanctions or some kind of punishment against Georgia, and for that they come to the capital of another country to report about their own country, to demand the punishment of their opponents’ children”.
Georgian Dream MP Beka Odisharia commented: “What I want to tell Sabanadze – before she sucked up to us, she sucked up to Saakashvili, and now she sucks up to Gakharia [Sabanadze used to be Giorgi Gakharia’s advisor on foreign relations]. I even feel sorry for Mikheil Saakashvili being encircled by such scoundrels…”
In their statement, the People’s Power attacked Ivane Chkhikvadze and Natalie Sabanadze for testifying before the United States Congress. The statement calls them “Georgians with no homeland,” and describes their testimonies as full with “evil”, calling the hearing a “clown show filled with revanchism.”
However, not all criticism came from GD. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili also criticized Sabanadze’s testimony on social media, allegedly dissatisfied with her answer regarding the question about his condition. Saakashivli wrote: “Yesterday, several congressmen supported me in the US Congress. Ambassador William Courtney was also very objective. And who justified the current injustice towards me? The same person who supported Ivanishvili’s policy for years until she was fired from the Embassy due to her association with Prime Minister Gakharia – Natalia Sabanadze.” The former President then notes that Sabanadze “received a decent answer from Congressman Steve Cohen, about the violation of my rights and political imprisonment.” Saakashvili’s criticism was echoed by some of the UNM supporters as well, who felt that Sabanadze’s assessment at the hearing that his confinement conditions were “decent” and his health “improving”, were not accurate.
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