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

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, marked the 13th anniversary of his party’s coming to power in the October 1 letter, railing against what he called “agents,” “internal enemies,” and “traitors” while warning that the upcoming October 4 local elections will be another test of the country’s sovereignty and stability.

“October 1 has become a symbol of unity, dignity, and the victory of good over evil,” Ivanishvili said at the start of the statement published on the Georgian Dream Facebook page. He described the day as “a key watershed between, on the one hand, authoritarianism, submission to foreign interests, fear and terror, and, on the other, democracy, loyalty to national sovereignty and freedom.”

Ivanishvili credited the Georgian people as “the main creator of October 1,” saying they “remain faithful to our ancestors’ teachings, traditions and Christian values, and have never bowed to domestic or foreign enemies.”

Ivanishvili said the 2012 victory was founded on “freedom, justice, mutual respect, love, dignity and independence,” and that those ideals “have not disappeared” in the 13 years since and “remain the foundation of our team’s actions.”

Since the 2012 change in government, Ivanishvili said, the ruling party has pursued economic stability and social welfare, and has produced “tangible results.” “The Georgian Dream government is the only power that has maintained lasting peace, and there is not a field that has not fundamentally improved since 2012,” he said.

But Ivanishvili warned that the country faces renewed threats from “forces of radicalism, confrontation and artificial discord” that now operate “in the name of the opposition” and, he said, aim “to take us back to the past, to immobility and to submission to foreign interests.”

He accused some opposition figures and “so-called non-governmental organizations” of acting as agents for foreign powers, saying those groups had been weakened but cautioning they could be replaced by others. “We have exposed all traitors and forced our internal enemies to admit that their actions are based not on national but on foreign interests,” he said. “Because of this, the pressure and blackmail against our country and people have increased and taken different forms.”

Ivanishvili acknowledged that his party had made mistakes during the past 13 years, but said they “were not to the degree to put our statehood and physical existence in danger, not to the degree that would be impossible to correct and eradicate.”

He added that what he called “wicked betrayal” by some former allies was the “hardest” experience for him personally. “During the past years, in our team there was betrayal too, which created a crisis not only for Georgian Dream, but also posed a real danger for the Georgian people and our country – to derail from the development trajectory and to return to power forces obedient to foreign interests,” Ivanishvili said.

Looking ahead to local elections on October 4, Ivanishvili urged Georgians to treat the vote as a chance to reaffirm the 2012 victory peacefully. “On October 4 we have a chance to show everyone again that our struggle today is about going to the polls and making a free choice, and about preserving peace and stability,” he said.

“Today we can finally peacefully confirm the peaceful victory obtained in 2012, turn radicalism and confrontation into yesterday, and then fight for more development and welfare, for finally overcoming poverty, for strengthening sovereignty and for peacefully uniting the country,” Ivanishvili said.

Also Read: