October 8, 2025 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has slammed the country’s Western partners, including the United States, the European Union, and their member states, for “not condemning” the October 4 election-day unrest in Tbilisi, saying that by failing to denounce or distance themselves from it, they “indirectly yet clearly” backed “overthrow and violence.”

“It has already been four days since a violent storming of Georgia’s presidential palace was carried out with the declared goal of overthrowing the government elected by the Georgian people,” Kobakhidze said at an October 8 briefing at the government administration.

“However, during these days, not a single organization or state – including the United States, the European Union, and certain EU member states – which usually claim the right to promptly assess Georgia’s internal political developments, criticize the country, and issue instructions to it, has made a statement condemning or distancing itself from the attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government and the violent assault on the presidential palace,” he added.

“Moreover, the European Union, ODIHR, and other actors have even dared to make statements of the opposite spirit,” Kobakhidze argued. “Naturally, the failure to distance oneself from and condemn the attempt to overthrow the government and the violence can easily be interpreted as an indirect yet clear expression of support for overthrow and violence.”

Unrest broke out on October 4 in Tbilisi, the day of widely boycotted local elections, when part of a large rally, whose organizers said their goal was to “peacefully overthrow” the Georgian Dream government, attempted to storm the presidential palace but were pushed back and dispersed by riot police. Five organizers and 18 other individuals have been arrested in connection with the events, while PM Kobakhidze said today that the number of arrests will “significantly grow.”

International partners, mainly from the European Union, said, among others, that the lack of credible observation undermined the transparency of the elections and noted that turnout was relatively low. They also called for “calm and restraint” in the post-election period while urging the authorities to uphold citizens’ rights to freedom of assembly and expression. The ruling party, however, has not received congratulations from any of the country’s traditional Western partners.

“The tragic political situation unfolding in the EU is most clearly evidenced by today’s statement from the European People’s Party (EPP),” Kobakhidze went on.

The European People’s Party (EPP), in its statement calling Bidzina Ivanishvili an “oligarch,” described the October 4 elections as “sham elections,” noting that the vote had the “lowest turnout in Georgia’s history” and was boycotted by major opposition parties “amid mass repression and violence against the regime’s opponents.” The EPP added that “the latest arrests and further threats of persecution by GD officials are aimed at curbing the people’s right to protest, eliminating the pro-Western opposition, and instilling total fear in society.” It further called on Georgian Dream to “stop violence and repression and respect the Georgian people’s European aspirations,” while calling on the EU to impose targeted sanctions on Ivanishvili and “his enablers.”

“At a time when the United National Movement and other radical opposition forces attempted to overthrow the government elected by the Georgian people and severely assaulted several police officers – two of whom narrowly escaped death, thanks to God – the European People’s Party is calling not for sanctions against the perpetrators and enemies of Georgian democracy, but against Bidzina Ivanishvili and other leaders of the ruling party,” Kobakhidze said.

“This statement by the EPP best helps Georgian society understand the tragic outcome to which the loss of sovereignty and the externally controlled European bureaucracy have brought the European Union,” he added.

Kobakhidze went on to say that the statements by these states and organizations “that cannot hide their irritation toward the Georgian people, its choice, and its uncompromising struggle for peace will have no value – neither now nor in the future.”

“Over 35 years of independent political life, and especially during the past five years, Georgian society has gained considerable experience, and, along with that experience, wisdom, to accurately judge who is its friend and who does not wish good for our country,” he said.

Responding to reporters’ questions, Kobakhidze harshened anti-EU rhetoric when he said, “Europe, as such, is no panacea – it was also the Europe of Mr. Goebbels,” referring to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Germany propaganda minister (1933-1945).

“These shameful lies and statements we hear from the European bureaucracy are truly a continuation of Goebbels-style propaganda,” Kobakhidze said, adding, “Goebbels, too, was Europe when he was active in the 1940s in Europe’s most powerful country, and such propaganda must not be allowed to return to Europe 80 years later.”

He also aimed at Washington, saying the U.S. State Department should prove “that it acts not under the influence of the deep state, but in accordance with the genuine interests of the American people,” adding that “the simplest proof of this would be to condemn the attempt to overthrow the government.”

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