Press Digest 05.11.2014

Alasania dismissed, the Coalition is on the verge of disaster

Gela Nikolaishvili - Alasania may become the leader of a third political force

This decision was tough but right – Gia Khikhashvili

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Alasania dismissed, the Coalition is on the verge of disaster

“Irakli Gharibashvili has dismissed Irakli Alasania and has granted his post to Mindia Janelidze. After the Prime Minister ousted Mr. Alasania, State Minister on European and Eoro-Atlantic integration, Alexi Petriashvili, has stepped down of his own volition. However, it is still vague whether or not the paths of the Georgian Dream Coalition and Alasania’s team will ever cross in the future. If Alasania’s former team members Tea Tsulukian and Maia Panjikidze also take the lead of Mr. Petriashvili and voluntarily bow out from their posts, then it will be possible to talk regarding a new balance of powers in the country. Today the Coalition is expected to convene a session where we will finally find out whether a rather imposing party of the Coalition withdraws themselves from the Coalition; however, in the present state of affairs, the chance that the Coalition will remain a united body is extremely small,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“It’s strongly expected that after the Government’s move to oust the Defense Minister who enjoys unconditional support from the West, the Dream Government’s standing in the international scene will even more be crippled. Yesterday, judging from Alasania’s manner of speech, it was obvious that he was rather strict towards the Premier; however, he tried not to break all ties between him and the Prime Minister. In addition, at first sight it seemed that in his speech, Alasania struck conciliatory tones with the National Movement. Despite great expectations from the public, Mr. Alasania did not voluntarily relinquished his post; moreover, he defined the move from the Prosecutor’s Office to level charges against the high officials of the Defense Ministry as a fight against Georgia’s euro-Atlantic aspirations. Precisely the aforementioned statement led him to losing his post as shortly after this announcement the Prime Minister addressed him by letting him know that because of his irresponsible statement, he had to bow out as Defense Minister. In the words of the Georgian PM, the Minister who fails to solve the issues connected to the nutrition of the Georgian militaries and who grants tenders to his friends could not have held the post of Defence Minister for long,” says the article.

"In addition, the Premier defined the statements from Alasania as hasty and irresponsible. As per the PM, the Defense Minister gave the public noncommittal answers regarding the body and its leadership. Thus, the Prime Minister named Mindia Janelidze, State Security and Crisis Management Council Head, as Alasania’s replacement. As for Alexi Petriashvili, who, in fact, stood aside live on the air on the Program “Maestro”, declared in a joking manner that the tentacles of dictatorship are endangering democracy in our day-to-day Georgia. As or the already former Defense Minister, Irakli Alasania, he stated that when the PM addressed him, he saw a prosecutor instead of the Prime Minister. If we believe to Mr. Alasania, the ongoing developments in our country have dealt a big blow to the Defense Ministry and discredited the country; and according to him, all this obviously plays into the hands of the aggressor state that has taken over our territories,” writes the author of the article.

“As military expert, Vakhtang Maisaia, states, besides the three already publicized cases, other cases are also shelved in the Prosecutor’s Office, and soon the issue of the former Defence Minister’s political accountability may also be raised. “Not so long ago, Alasania took the lid of his plans by stating that he intended to retake the post of the head of the party, and in this way, he made it clear that he was going to take active steps in the already launched political game. In my mind, by pressing charges against his co-workers the Prosecutor’s Office only stole his thunder,” claims the expert.

Gela Nikolaishvili - Alasania may become the leader of a third political force

"Under the given circumstances, it’s a bit difficult to gauge the present situation from the legal point of view since not only we but also the lawyers have not fully reviewed the case materials. And against this backdrop, we cannot be sure about anything. The Prosecutor’s Office has formulated its own position, Irakli Alasania, is deeply convinced that his colleagues and co-workers are innocent. However, as for us, the neutral part of the public, I do not think that today we are entitled to make impetuous statements and rush at unfounded conclusions,” maintains Human Right Protector, Gela Nikolaishvili, in his interview with the Akhali Taoba gazette.

“As for evaluating the issue from a political point of view, figuratively speaking, politics in our contemporary Georgia is suffering from labor pains and is about to deliver a new political force the birth of which the public is so impatiently waiting for. The emergence of this third political power is mandatory in today’s Georgia, where one force the National Movement has its loyal adherents the number of which is neither going up or down; as for the leading political power, the number of its advocates is much more that that of the former force, but their number is decreasing with time. And most importantly, the last election clearly showed us that the number of people that are sitting on the fence by refusing to take sides with either of the mentioned force is really big,” states Mr. Nikolaishvili.

“Nowadays, the hypothetical third force that can serve as the counterweight of the already mentioned political powers is Nino Burjanadze’s party having taken third place in the elections. However, this party has failed to take active steps in our political arena which is why we can easily see Irakli Alasania as a leader of the political force that is about to emerge in our political scene. In the present state of play, the members of the Coalition can be easily likened to those mountain climbers that are linked with one another with a long rope and if this rope is cut and one of the climbers staggers others will also share his fate and fall in a boundless gorge. If we keep speaking figuratively and follow through with this logic, the member of the Coalition which has voluntarily cut this rope stands the strongest chance of falling in this gorge; however, this gorge can also easily turn out to be a new path leading the Defense Minister to the creation of a new force the appearance of which has really become a must today,” continues the respondent.

“Thus, today Mr. Alasania’s fate is in his own hands. It’s up to him whether he will fall in the gorge by cutting the rope or whether he will lay the foundation for a new power. In addition, we cannot deflect our attention from Richard Norland’s paramount statement as per which they support Mr. Alasania and fully trust him and his team. This announcement from the U.S. Ambassador can easily mean that they are pushing Alasania to form his own party and take independent steps in the future,” concludes Mr. Nikolaishvili.

This decision was tough but right – Gia Khikhashvili

"In this case, this was the only right decision; making this decision was rather tough though. The PM simply had no other option – he was bound to dismiss the Defense Minister,” states Gia Khukhashvili in his interview with the Rezonansi gazette.

“Our recently ousted Defense Minister has made several unwarrantable mistakes: 1. he openly confronted the Prosecutor’s Office as well as the political and state leadership. 2. he accused the Government of launching a fight against Georgia’s euro-Atlantic aspirations and he made the 3rd mistake by stating that the political council should have discussed the recently unfolded events in the Defense Ministry. If political council truly scrutinized this issue it would have clearly meant that the political upper crust is meddling in the issues that by rights must be dealt with by the prosecutor’s Office and investigators,” maintains Mr. Khukhashvili.

“And very deplorable is the fact that this matter has been politicized, and it has been politicized precisely after the statements from the Defense Ministry. Instead of separating politics and justice by drawing a clear line between them, they have done absolutely the opposite,” contends the expert.

“From the very beginning we could have predicted that Aasania planned to step down and get involved in active politics. A short time ago, he himself stated that he might retake the post of the party head. However, I do not think that the last step taken by him will guarantee him a bright political future,” says the respondent.

“I do not really think that leaving the Coalition fell within the plans of “Free Democrats” and Republicans at this point in time. Today these two parties really lack resources and they surely didn’t have a desire to even more aggravate the situation by abandoning the Coalition. They are very well aware of the fact that today they cannot count on their forces and take independent steps on our political scene. They did not plan anything before the election of 2018; however, sometimes the events move so rapidly that life forces us to make this or that decision sooner than we plan,” concludes Gia Khukhashvili.