Press Digest 07.11.2014

Is the dismissed Defense Minister under threat of detention?

Coalition stands no chance of being dismantled -- Dato Lortkipanidze

Bidzina Ivanishvili must either return to political scene or must disengage from it once and for all – Demur Giorkhelidze

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Is the dismissed Defense Minister under threat of detention?

"Will they incarcerate former Minister, Irakli Alasania, or will his reputation be tarnished because of lobbying the Nationals? Will he get off with losing face only? After a political conflict between Mr. Alasania and Gharibashvili morphed into a personal war between the two high officials, this issue has become a subject of the public’s intense interest. Anyway, the Prime Minister has pulled back the curtain on a great deal of unexpected surprises and a culminating point of all this was his statement in which he defined Mr. Alasania as one “opportunist, self-seeker, brainless and ambitious” minister, who is a black sheep for his team,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“The Premier refused to specify anything; however, he issued a kind of threatening comment as per which the only person who openly lobbied the Nationals, started with Gigi Ugulava and ended with Mr. Bokeria, was Irakli Alasania. Thus, in his words, everything is clear when it comes to a man who took the representatives of the National Movement under his wing. PM Gharibashvili also stressed that the former minister’s determination to stand by the Nationals is nothing more than self-lustration,” says the article.

“Now some other materials fortifying the allegation as per which the ex-Defense Minister has strong ties with the Nationals is also expected to come to surface. However, they don’t expect that Mr. Alasania will face corruption charges and be sent to prison since he has strong support from both the West and the USA. As for the Prime Minister’s insulting statement released at the government’s session yesterday, even the former members of the coalition have defined it as negative,” reads the paper.

“The member of parliament faction “Georgian Dream – National Forum,” Ani Mirotadze, says that characterizing the former team members with similar words is a rather unpleasant fact. As for the member of Republican Party, Tina Khidasheli, on her Facebook page, she has posted a statement saying that she does not have brainless self-seeker friends. In her words, she cannot really blame Alasania for betraying his own country as he was always strongly determined to push it in the right direction. As for the core protagonist, Mr. Alasania, he expressed his concerns over the fact that by issuing this immensely harsh statement, the Prime Minister crossed the line and gave a very bad account of him. “Genuine and ingenious people never lose face. However, unfortunately, the Prime Minister has. I cannot help feeling wistful while looking back across the years I spent with my team members and, thus, I don’t have the slightest desire to release a comment regarding their statements… I will take the moral high road and will appeal to him to follow my cue,” stated Mr. Alasania and added that it is not excluded that the investigators will knock at his doors one day,” concludes the author of the article.

Coalition stands no chance of being dismantled -- Dato Lortkipanidze

"We see perfectly well how the former Ministers as well as the former PM are involved in politics today; they even dare to interfere in the country’s domestic affairs and internal issues. One thing What I really do not understand is how can a man who wrested the country out of Saakashvili's claws and toppled his rule be forbidden from attending a coalition meeting? Mr. Ivanishvili is not a decision-making figure in today’s Georgia; however, it would be extremely bad if he refused to appear on the political scene when the country is going through a very sticky patch,” announces member of parliamentary majority, Dato Lortkipanidze, in his interview with the Alia gazette under the title: Bidzina Ivanishvili: you will see everything will be well; you don’t even know how I won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections of 2012 as I am keeping a lot of things under wraps.”

“At the political council session of the coalition, the Premier took the floor and touched upon a wide range of acute issues in his speech. He tried to hammer out a solution to all acute issues through talks. The session was scheduled on Nov. 4, at 18:00. However, later they announced that they were holding a special briefing. We all listened to Irakli Alasania’s statement. Bidzina Ivanishvili heard it too. His words touched the bottom of our hearts and despite the recently unfolded events in the country, we did not expect that he would have made such a statement. When you take the floor and maintain that the country has gone off course what you expect? Do you expect that this statement can please anyone?!”asks Mr. Lortkipanidze.

“The Prosecutor’s Office must be free from any kind of political pressure. We have agreed to bring in a new package of amendments to the parliament. We have not discussed the issue of court with Bidzina Ivanishvili. We simply talked regarding the present situation in the country and started searching for the reasons that led us to this straightforward dead-end. As far as I can see, they did not plan to dismiss Mr. Alasania before 18:00. The PM did not really have a desire to oust him. Mr. Alasania simply made him take this step by making his announcement,” maintains the respondent.

“Two members of faction “Free Democrats”, Tamaz Japaridze and Gela Samkharauli, have refused to abandon the coalition. Thus, out of 83 deputies, 73 of them have remained in the body. If 3 more people refuse to withdraw themselves from the coalition, we will stay in the majority. Even without this the coalition does not stand a chance of being dismantled as independent democrats are in our ranks too. Presumably, all obscurity in terms of this matter will be cleared away on Nov.12, and at the Parliament’s plenary session, we will finally figure out who will stay within the coalition and who will abandon it,” says the member of the majority.

“We also know that the Republicans are staying in the coalition. Today’s developments in the country are really wringing our hearts. I remember perfectly well how Bidzina Ivanishvili cherished his team members… and issuing such statements is a bit embarrassing today; by releasing them, they in fact, fix indelible blots on their own reputation. Making insulting statements regarding Bidzina Ivanishvili and directly telling him that you are not going to discuss this or that issue with him is, to they least of it, an irrational step,” concludes the respondent.

Bidzina Ivanishvili must either return to political scene or must disengage from it once and for all – Demur Giorkhelidze

"This is an absolutely ridiculous statement and the representatives of the former government agree with this too. Georgia’s western orientation is not a choice of either Mr. Alasania or the National Movement. The Georgian people are firmly holding their ground and this choice is not really in need of reconsideration. The Georgian people have not made this choice because of the fact that a clique of western leaders support Saakashvili or Alasania, and making statements similar to that of Alasania is nothing more than a demagogy,” claims political expert, Demur Giorkheilidze, in his interview with the Akhali Taoba gazette.

“I think that only well measured steps must be taken in politics. On this particular occasion, the Government has given a really bad account of it. In a country where falsehood is rampant, where neither press nor the public or law enforcers are doing their job honestly, vacancies announced in the Defense Ministry can mean nothing good. This issue became a point of hot debates and heated discussions long ago, and if we were a normal and settled country, we would have ousted the Defense Minister a year ago and would have carefully held an investigation into the case. There is not even a shadow of doubt that a crime has been committed. However, the Government’s big mistake today is that they have pursued the practice of selective justice and they’ve acted on behalf of law only when it suits them. And we all know that this is not characteristic of the West,” maintains Demur Giorkhelidze.

“So with what kind of a situation are we faced today? The cases that have already been brought against some former high officials have been linked to politics as if the government’s decision to remove Alasania from his post was politically motivated. By doing this, they have changed a discourse through political technologies and have labeled Alasania as an oppressed minister who has been sidelined because of his western orientation. Thus, in this concrete case, we have a hero on the one side and a mendacious government on the other. I’ve reiterated that the Coalition is not a viable body as it has already exhausted its life energy.

"To the question what can he say regarding Ivanishvili’s presumable return to politics, the respondent answers:

"I don’t believe in myths. Myths cannot exist in politics. The Georgian public has already made an unwarrantable mistake when it ascribed the results of the election to one man. We must give credit where credit is due and we must realize that not only one man, but the entire Georgian population has made this decision. Bidzina Ivanishvili has taken the lion’s share in these processes; however, this was not his merit only. He can obviously return but he must be a public politician. Anyway, he must either return to our political arena or depart from it once and for all. Under other circumstances, we will be faced with a really big misunderstanding,” concludes the respondent.