During a briefing on May 8, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, while addressing the ongoing protests against the Foreign Agents Law, announced the ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision to create a database containing information on individuals “involved in violence, blackmail, threats, and other illegal acts,” as well as those “publicly endorsing these actions.”
Civil.ge has compiled the reactions to GD’s plan from across the Georgian political spectrum...
Ruling Party
Giorgi Volski, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, GD MP: “People are violent in a specific situation and follow a specific plan… We say that there must be a space where people get to know concrete individuals whose responsibility towards their family and country should be emphasized. In this regard, which “Kagebe” methods are we talking about? What kind of KGB methods are they talking about?”
Irakli Zarkua, GD MP: “People without a motherland, who do not believe in God, parents, country, anything. A list of such people must be created so that the society knows who is behind this anti-Georgian movement, its organizers. We say that the names of those who are bullying society, insulting it, attacking the Church, coming out and publicly calling for a coup should be identified… It is [only] to identify those who fight against the Georgian state, those who bully our citizens for having different opinions, nothing more.”
Opposition:
Nika Gvaramia, Ahali: “What [Georgian] Dream is doing is mirroring the registration of Jews in Nazi Germany in 1937. The unfolding situation is unimaginable. They are creating a blacklist, the list of enemies, which will be accessible to everyone, so it turns out that they can push people to attack them. It is simply inconceivable to talk about progress towards Europe with such a government in power. It is absolutely impossible. This has not happened anywhere except in Russia and Belarus. Even in Russia such lists were created after years of passing the law on agents, and yet Georgian Dream hasn’t even passed the law and they are already making lists… We should realize that we are in the time of dictatorship, under a repressive regime and it is only a matter of time whether we win in this country and advance to Europe or Russia wins with the hands of Georgian Dream and we go nowhere, only backwards.”
Zurab Japaridze, Girchi-More Freedom: “It is funny in itself that they have copied the idea of mona.ge, but the fact that they are creating a registry of people with differing positions, differing opinions, and that such a registry will exist is dangerous, because we know how the same system works in Russia, where certain people, and there are many such people, are behind bars for the Facebook likes and shares.”
Levan Bezhashvili, United National Movement (UNM): “Shalva Papuashvili’s statement represents the manipulative tactics employed by the Georgian Dream in recent days. While today the state is the main perpetrator of violence, with mercenary thugs and gangs of the ruling party marauding in the streets of Tbilisi, abusing youth who participate in protest rallies, abusing political leaders… against this background, Shalva Papuashvili’s accusations are yet another manipulation and impudence.”
Elene Khoshtaria, Droa: “This is exactly the extension of the logic of the Russian regime. [First] the Russian law, [now] this whatever list is absolutely identical to what is happening in Russia. This is exactly what we are fighting against, this cannot be tolerated… At the same time, while mona.ge will preserve for future generations the list of people who created this Russian regime, this list will honor the people who were truly the honorable warriors, the freedom lovers.”
Giorgi Vashadze, Strategy Aghmashenebeli: “We have seen the statement of the Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, which points to the weakness of them [GD] and their internal [party] demolition…All in all, it is a shame for the Speaker of the Parliament to make such a statement…Shalva, do not follow Bidzina to the grave, I am telling you directly, because the road you are on now is exactly the road to Bidzina’s grave.”
Saba Buadze, Lelo for Georgia: “They are making lists in the best Soviet traditions, they are making a registry and trying to expand this Russian special operation that they are conducting against the national interests of our country… Their intention is very clear: it’s the fragmentation of society, confrontation, putting additional labels on people, as it happened in the time of the Bolsheviks. They are the political successors of the Bolsheviks.
Giorgi Gakharia, For Georgia: “GD announced creation of some illegal registry aimed at labeling any citizen opposing Government policies, including through social media, as enemies. The absurdity of these methods, which are directly copied from the Russian playbooks, emphasizes inadequacy of the Georgian Government, which threatens national security. The degrading GD has become a useful fool of Moscow. The puppet GoG instigates civil confrontation with a potential grave consequences. Ivanishvili is waging a war against his own citizens. Everyone participating in these illegal activities will face responsibility.”