Elina Valtonen, the Finnish Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, who recently visited Georgia, has extended an invitation on social media to Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze to visit Finland and observe “any demonstration,” while apologizing for the canceled meeting in Tbilisi due to “clashing schedules.”
The October 16 post on X followed controversy over the previous day’s canceled meeting between Valtonen and Kobakhidze. While the Georgian Dream government said Kobakhidze called off the meeting because Valtonen attended an “illegal rally” and made “false statements,” Valtonen later told media it was the Finnish side, not Georgian, that canceled the meeting due to a “schedule change.”
In a late-night TV interview with Georgia’s Public Broadcaster, Kobakhidze maintained that he had canceled the meeting over Valtonen’s appearance the night before at the routine anti-government and pro-EU protest on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue. “50 so-called Akatsukis gathered at that rally, and Finland’s foreign minister showed up as the 51st Akatsuki, which is unimaginable,” he said. (Editor’s note: GD figures have used the term “Akatsuki,” borrowed from a villain group in the Japanese anime Naruto, as a derogatory label for protesters.). Kobakhidze, who has vowed to end the daily protests that have blocked the capital’s main Rustaveli Avenue for more than 320 days, said the number of protesters is too small to justify blocking the street.
Valtonen, in her post on X, addressed Kobakhidze, saying the “Georgian future is only for the Georgian people to decide. The same applies to every OSCE participating state. For people to be able to exercise this right, they need freedom of speech and free and fair elections with political alternatives to choose from.”
Valtonen then quoted the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, specifically the parts that stipulate for the participating states to commit to promote and encourage the “effective exercise of civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and other rights and freedoms for all individuals,” and the states’ affirming that these rights are freedoms “derive from the inherent dignity of the human person and are essential to the development of free and democratic societies.”
“In this spirit,” Valtonen added, “as chair of the OSCE and 50 years since the signing of this document, I invite you, PM Kobakhidze, to come to Finland, meet the free press and observe any demonstration of your liking.”
As a postscript, Valtonen noted, “I had to cancel our meeting in Tbilisi because of clashing schedules.”
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