საინფორმაციო სააგენტო ინტერპრესნიუსი

"I know Giorgi Gakharia very well, so I wasn’t surprised by his remarks at the investigative commission session. But for a man to repeatedly say 'I don’t remember' with such arrogance — 30 times — to lie with such arrogance 30 times, and to speak complete nonsense... I believe the public has clearly understood all of this," said Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze.

According to him, Giorgi Gakharia acted "on orders from external forces," and his main objective was to damage the image of "Georgian Dream."

Kobakhidze stated that Gakharia had received such instructions on more than one occasion, both when he served as Interior Minister and later as Prime Minister — especially during his time in the Interior Ministry.

"The phrase 'I don’t remember' and all those lies were because Gakharia had no real answers. He would say one thing and then, 30 seconds or 1-2 minutes later, something completely different. It was clear that he had a lot to hide. The main thing he’s hiding is that he acted on external orders. What he did — including the use of rubber bullets — was carried out on the basis of such orders. The main goal was to harm the image of 'Georgian Dream.' He received these instructions more than once, particularly when serving as Interior Minister. If you recall, there was a consistently manufactured perception that the government and society — especially the youth — were in conflict with one another. This was entirely artificial. For instance, remember the Pankisi operation, where police and civilians were deliberately pitted against each other, and every time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and law enforcement officers were left humiliated. That’s what happened in the Pankisi Gorge. He intentionally turned the Interior Ministry against Georgian citizens, leaving the police disgraced — all of it was orchestrated," the Prime Minister said.

Irakli Kobakhidze also discussed the case involving Club Bassiani and claimed that Giorgi Gakharia deliberately incited conflict between "Georgian Dream" and the youth.

"Remember the Bassiani case as well — it was another completely staged scenario. He pitted the government of 'Georgian Dream' against young people. There was an order, an assignment. That’s why you can’t just go around calling someone an agent — but in this case, we had to. There’s also an interesting detail: who made the call, and so on. That question was raised. A specific individual made a call from a specific office, where a representative of the 'deep state' was sitting. Our team knows who it was, and Tea Tsulukiani also mentioned that she knows the name. We’ve discussed it among ourselves, but we avoid talking about it publicly because we don’t want to create unnecessary complications for the country. In reality, that call made it absolutely clear to us that this person was acting under foreign instructions. That moment, that phone call, confirmed it — it was like a seal. The call wasn’t made to me personally, but to one of the leaders of our political team. Most of the parliamentary majority knows the name and surname of the caller — it was a high-ranking official who called from abroad and said they were against Gakharia's resignation. The discussion happened after June 20, and eventually, the decision was made that Gakharia should resign. He asked for 10-15 minutes, said he’d return with a final answer — and during that 10-15 minute break, a call came from the 'deep state.' It was a high-ranking official who called from outside the country and said it was not advisable to dismiss him," the Prime Minister told 'Rustavi 2'.