Civil Georgia
March 14, 2023
In a lengthy press conference today on last week’s protests in Tbilisi, Georgian Dream leader Irakli Kobakhidze accused the opposition, the former Ombudsman, critical media and youth groups of organizing the ‘liberal fascist campaign’.
Irakli Kobakhidze reiterated that the law on “foreign agents”, even without its adoption, had brought more results than it would have had it been adopted. He said that now everyone sees clearly that “those organizations that demanded the resignation of the government, tried to tarnish the reputation of the Church, carried out LGBT propaganda and undermined the country’s energy security – all these organizations are in fact not the people’s organizations, but foreign influence agents”.
He then added that there had already been a revolution in 2003 “through the NGOs”, which had caused the country’s democratic backsliding, torture, business racketeering, media appropriation and the loss of 20% of Georgian territory.
He stressed: “we will not allow the UNM [United National Movement, the party of imprisoned ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili] to return to power with the help of agents of foreign influence”.
He said that last week’s rallies had exposed the “extremist political youth groups” [as] supported by the American organisation Atlas Network”, of being “agents of foreign influence”. Kobakhidze then took the time to implicate several universities, such as the Free University and the University of Georgia, as well as specific individuals in their management, in supporting revolutionary activities alongside the above-mentioned political parties.
Kobakhidze blamed the opposition parties’ youth organisations for the violence against the police, calling them extremists and accusing the demonstrators of launching a campaign “in the best tradition of liberal fascism”. According to Kobakhidze, in addition to the opposition parties, the former Ombudsman, critical journalists, NGO representatives and universities are also part of this “fascist” campaign.
====
Rustavi2
March 14, 2023
The fascist campaign that was carried out in universities and schools is particularly disturbing. Such a statement made the Chairman of the Georgian dream, while commenting the March 7 – 8 developments in Tbilisi.
“There have even been cases, when school teachers called the parents of their young students traitors, which is the worst expression of fascism and Bolshevism.
“There was also a campaign demanding the removal of professors from the university education process.
***
“The use of public or private universities for political propaganda by ‘national’ lecturers is a gross violation of academic ethics.
“Let us remind you that the ‘national’ lecturers were disrupting the educational process themselves, offering students to increase their marks in exchange for participation in actions, etc.
“The use of universities for political purposes is also an invariable signature of the United National Movement,” said Irakli Kobakhidze.
====
The Messenger
March 14, 2023
Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili spoke about the events that took place in the country on March 7-8 in an interview with TV Imedi.
He explained the importance of the draft law on “agents of foreign influence”. According to him, the main motivation for the adoption of the draft law was to let the population know what the activities of non-governmental organizations serve.
The PM said that after gaining independence in the country, a large amount of funding goes to the accounts of non-governmental organizations, their goals and activities are opaque, and the law would establish the minimum level of transparency and responsibility toward citizens.
Prime Minister accused several non-governmental organizations of being destructive and creating provocations and added that its government’s job to inform people about their activities:
“For example, known for its destructive actions and provocations, the so-called The Shame movement, which is financed directly by foreign organizations, including state organizations of foreign countries, we saw that this organization demanded the resignation of the government, my resignation, many destructive actions were carried out by them or with their complicity.
***
For example, Transparency International, also known as ISFED, which directly presented falsified data on the day of the elections, and the results of parallel counting in the subsequent period were falsified, which they later admitted, our task is to know and let our people know what their activities serve,” said Gharibashvili.
Anti-bellum 