Lela Jejelava: If Georgian Dream’s strategy is a multipolar world, they could have gone to India, or gone to China again; I don’t understand why budget money should be spent on a visit to Tanzania; I don’t know what we are looking for in Tanzania

“The result of Georgian Dream’s 14 years in power is that the country’s European integration has been suspended, and there is no longer even talk of integration into the Euro-Atlantic alliance. In terms of human rights protection, we are in a situation where, on the 14th anniversary of Georgian Dream’s rule, we are still talking about a person being raped in prison,” expert Lela Jejelava said on PalitraNews’ program “Day's Newsroom.”

According to Jejelava, the only thing Georgian Dream has left, and the thing it has been selling all this time, “is supposedly peace. But even that peace is very fragile, and they do not have orderly relations with any side, including with their neighbors.”

Jejelava once again assessed the events that took place on October 4 of last year. In her view, the government failed to present the October 4 “adventure” in the way it wanted, either domestically or internationally.

“October 4 became a serious problem for the government. Although October 4 ended the way it did and the outcome society expected did not materialize - namely, Bidzina Ivanishvili’s government did not fall, which was what was most often heard and what was deemed an anti-state statement. The term ‘peaceful overthrow’ was used because it implied the government’s forced departure.

A great many people really gathered on Rustaveli Avenue on October 4. What was the purpose of this gathering? All those people told Georgian Dream: ‘You must leave power because I do not give you legitimacy, and I am not the source of your power!’ In any case, any civilized, democratic government would take the people’s voice into account and seek to change something.

I believe that the people were the organizers of the October 4 rally, because when the purpose of the rally was announced and so many people attended, it naturally indicated that the people wanted a change of government. The government wanted to use the outcome of the October 4 rally, the way it ended, as leverage in its dealings with Western partners. The government’s objective was to tell Western partners that the protesters supported overthrowing the government and removing it by force, something they themselves had prevented.

After October 4, their objective became to prove that they were truly a legitimate government. The West did not accept Georgian Dream’s rules of the game. They could not present so many arrests and such charges in the way they wanted to.

The government will gain nothing from October 4 - it could neither sell the adventure that took place abroad in the way it wanted, nor sell it domestically to the Georgian people. If the West wanted to bargain with Ivanishvili over hostages, it would have done so by now!

The idea that the Georgian government considers the country’s geography its main trump card is simply not true. What are they going to bargain over when, in the Caucasus region, they are still finding footholds and spheres of influence and working on routes?” Jejelava said.

Jejelava also spoke about Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili’s trip to Tanzania together with a parliamentary delegation, where the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is being held.

According to her, it is unclear why budget money should be spent on the visit of the Parliament Speaker and MPs to Tanzania.

“If Georgian Dream’s foreign policy strategy is a multipolar world, they could at least have gone to India, which is one of the serious and influential players today, or gone to China again and operated in an area that is economically important to us. I do not understand why budget money should be spent on the Parliament Speaker and MPs visiting Tanzania - I do not know what we are looking for in Tanzania. Papuashvili will return and will probably tell us,” Jejelava said.

Another topic discussed on today’s program was the case of Giorgi Davitadze, a convicted prisoner held at Rustavi’s No. 6 Penitentiary Facility, who alleges that he was subjected to sexual violence by prison employees. According to Jejelava, “our society will truly become a society when no one shakes the hand of that man wearing gloves.”

“For 14 years, in order to discredit the previous government, we were constantly told that someone was being raped in prison. Every day, like a mantra, there was talk about 26,000 men being raped. But it turned out that for them this was merely a tool for manipulation, and that the dignity of a single prisoner or anyone’s rights were never important to them.

For the people in our society who support Georgian Dream today, someone else’s dead person is not their dead person; a prisoner whose dignity has been violated is not a prisoner to them. They used all of this. They did not truly care about any of the names they keep invoking - Girgvliani, Gamkrelidze, Robakidze. None of them caused them genuine pain. These deceased people turned out to be weapons for their political ambitions,” Jejelava said.