Georgia has been rocked by an escalating political power struggle for its future for more than a week. Georgians have been angered since an announcement from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze that talks about Georgia's accession into the European Union have been suspended for four years.
The E.U. made the decision due to the passage of anti-LGBTQ laws. Meanwhile, the European Parliament has called for a re-run of Georgia's recent election.
Police arrested opposition party leader Nika Gvaramia while raiding Coalition for Change party's office on December 3 after protests throughout the country, reported the Associated Press.
Gvaramia's arrest and raids on other opposition parties and non-governmental organizations' offices are the latest moves the authorities have taken in attempting to control the ongoing demonstrations against the government.
Since November 28, tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of Tbilisi, the country's capital, clashing with police in violent mass demonstrations that have upended the South Caucasus nation. Nearly 300 protesters in Tbilisi have been arrested since the demonstrations started, according to The AP.
Kobakhidze, chairman of the populist Dream Party, announced the E.U. postponement after the E.P. called for a new election, citing irregularities in Georgia's election and sanctions against Kobakhidze and Georgia's high-ranking officials.
Georgia has been a candidate for E.U. membership since 2023, a year after the country applied in accordance with its 2017 constitution, reported Al Jazeera. However, Brussels suspended Georgia's E.U. membership earlier this year after Georgia's Parliament, led by the Dream Party, passed the first of two Russian-styled anti-LGBTQ laws. The party followed up the "foreign influence law" in June with the "On the Protection of Family Values and Minors" law in October.
The Dream Party repeatedly attacked the country's LGBTQ community and restricted people's rights leading up to the October election.
A poll from the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based non-governmental organization, found that nearly 80% of Georgians said they want their country to become an E.U. member.
Homophobic attitudes in Georgia are high, but changing, according to the Women's Initiatives Supporting Group, reported Civil Georgia.
Georgian voters saw their vote on October 26 as a referendum on the opportunity to join the E.U., reported the AP.
"Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen," Salome Zurabishvili, Georgia's outgoing pro-E.U. president, told the AP. Zurabishvili is not a member of the Dream Party.
Russia took control over Georgia's breakaway provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, after a brief war in 2008. Russia, which borders Georgia for nearly 600 miles, is watching the situation closely, reported the AP.
Questionable election
The election has been hotly contested ever since the Dream Party declared victory in October. The E.P. and Zurabishvili rejected Georgia's election results, citing irregularities in the voting process. The E.P. called for a new election November 28.
Zurabishvili contested the results in Georgia's Constitutional Court, but the court rejected the appeal on December 3, reported the AP.
Despite her role being largely ceremonial, Zurabishvili refuses to step down when her six-year term ends later this month, reported CNN. She claims that Georgia currently does not have a government. Born in France, Zurabishvili plans to lead the opposition demand for a new parliamentary election.
Zurabishvili also refused to sign both Russian-styled anti-LGBTQ bills into law earlier this year. Instead, Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of Parliament, signed the bills.
The Bay Area Reporter previously covered the passage of the "On the Protection of Family Values and Minors." The newspaper also covered the murder of Georgian transgender model Kesaria Abramidze the day after the bill was signed into law.
The law targets LGBTQ Georgians' freedom of speech and assembly, censors educational organizations and publishers, bans changing gender on identity documents, bans same-sex marriage, and bans same-sex and non-cisgender adoption of children, among other prohibitions. Additionally, the law declares May 17, traditionally observed as International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, as a new public holiday in Georgia called "Family Sanctity and Respect for Parents."
Uproar
Angered about the delay in joining the E.U., tens of thousands of Georgians took to the streets throughout the South Caucasus nation. For seven days, demonstrators protested in Tbilisi, marching down Rustaveli Avenue, the city's central boulevard, and surrounding the parliament building.
Thousands more took to the streets in at least eight cities and towns, reported CNN.
Demonstrators were not only average Georgian citizens. Hundreds of Georgian diplomats and civil servants also joined the protesters, signing open letters to the government calling the suspension of the E.U. talks unlawful according to the country's constitution, reported Al Jazeera and CNN.
"This movement now extends beyond public demonstrations," Tinatin Akhvlediani, a research fellow in the E.U. Foreign Policy Unit at the Brussels-based think tank Centre for European Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera.
"Civil servants, including some from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, members of the diplomatic corps and hundreds within the education system have joined the resistance. This signals that Georgians are united in their determination not to abandon their European choice," Akhvlediani told the outlet.
In Tbilisi, police used water cannons and tear gas to push protesters back along Rustaveli Avenue, reported AP. The wire service also reported police chased and beat some protesters rallying in front of Georgia's parliament building.
Police also used heavy force against members of the media, according to the news outlet. Protesters fought back by throwing fireworks at police.
Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested on administrative charges, five were arrested on criminal charges, reported AP. A reported 26 people, including three police officers and one member of the media, were hospitalized with injuries.
Zurabishvili cited some detained protesters' lawyers, who described some of the injuries sustained by many of the demonstrators to their heads and faces, including broken bones and eye sockets, in a post on X. She added that some protesters were subject to systematic beatings between their arrest and transportation to detention facilities.
She lambasted the police for "brutal and disproportionate attacks on the Georgian people and media, reminiscent of Russian-style repression" at the protests, reported CNN.
Georgia's public ombudsman Levan Ioseliani, whose role is to defend citizens' rights, accused Georgian police of inflicting torture on people.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken; Kaja Kallas, the E.U.'s new foreign policy chief; and Zurabishvili and Ioseliani condemned the violence during the week. Kallas just assumed office December 1.
Blinken noted the U.S.'s more than 30-year relationship with Georgia, after it gained independence from Russia in 1991, and called upon the Dream Party to "cease its repressive tactics."
"Those detained for exercising their human rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression must be released immediately," Blinken said December 4. "Officials responsible for the unlawful use of force must be held fully accountable.
"The United States stands in solidarity with the Georgian people and their democratic aspirations," he continued, adding that the U.S. was exploring its diplomatic options.
Tbilisi Pride responded to the government's crackdown in a December 1 statement posted on the organization's Facebook page.
Georgia's leading LGBTQ organization accused the country's government of extending its use of violence that it "first tested and honed through violence against" the queer community to "encompass all of society."
Georgia's government "deliberately" chose to attack the country's LGBTQ community "to consolidate their grip on power, institutionalize repression, and dramatically alter our nation's geopolitical trajectory," Tbilisi Pride stated, noting that the "On the Protection of Family Values and Minors" law went into effect December 2.
"The manifestation of authoritarianism and Russian-style fascism, now glaringly apparent to the broader public, was first strengthened and emboldened through the violation of our fundamental rights and bodily autonomy," the statement continued. "The same iron fist that today shows no mercy — striking down women, children, the elderly, and even those already fallen unconscious — was first tested and honed through violence against us."
Kobakhidze, the prime minister, repeatedly praised the police response and characterized the protests as "violent demonstrations," reported the AP and Reuters. He warned that "any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law."
Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or [email protected]
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