Their move to replace Alasania with Mr. Janelidze is surrounded by many unanswered questions -- Soso Tsiskarishvili

InterPressNews sat down with Independent Expert Club President, Soso Tsiskarishvili, to discuss acute issues of Georgia’s internal and external policy.

-- Premier Irakli Gharibashvili has recently removed Defense Minister Irakli Alasania from his post. Prior to this, the high officials of the Defense Ministry faced corruption charges. Members of the Government, Free Democrats have also resigned. Events are moving extremely rapidly in Georgia today. Some observers have defined the present situation in the country as a new political status quo, while others as a political crisis. What could you say regarding the new political reality and the presumable causes of the present political crisis?

- The present developments in the country have stimulated a slew of different kinds of presumptions. However, today’s reality is that they have dismissed a famous Minister with a high rating in a rather hectic situation. And today it’s a fact that the authorities have a radically different approach to different principal issues.

It may be a bit early to talk regarding the arguments with which Mr. Alasania can corroborate his statements saying that some threats are pending to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic course. However, a core sign directly pointing to Mr. Alasania’s high sense of responsibility is that he has not publicized the topics that pushed him to release a statement saying that the country can be pushed from this chosen path and its Euro-Atlantic perspectives are at risk today.

Whether this way or that, the actual fact is that not even a single political team has tried to blackmail anyone today. This is a deplorable reality pushing us to reconsider the steps we have recently taken and the repercussions of which have played only into the hands of the Kremlin.

-- Irakli Alasania defined the present occurrence in the country as a step against the country’s Euro-Atlantic course. Although he has not specified who is playing the games serving the Russians’ interests. In your opinion, who has the former Defense Minister implicated in his statement?

- I would put those playing the games of Russia in two categories: 1. who are really playing these games on their own volition and 2. who are mired in this games by force. Their names as well as the posts they are holding today will come to the surface only after we find out who tried to hamper them from moving forward with the military relations between Georgia and France and Georgia and Germany. In addition, the present rapidly moving events are also worth taking into account. This issue is enveloped in mystery only for the Georgian people; however, in the Kremlin as well as in NATO and Washington, they know perfectly well who has initiated the events that have had such a negative ripple effect in our country.

--Let’s judge by the results we have recently faced. While talking regarding the Security Council that definitely is not a constitutional body, we must first find out why and who has founded it. We must first work out why the President has been denied access to the country’s security and defense issues and why have they filed the legislations under which all key functions of the Security Council have fallen into the PM’s authority?

We don’t really need to rack our brains to guess which country will be glad to see one of the top brass chekists on the post of Defense Minister instead of this or that public figure. Against this background, it is extremely important to find out by relying on what kind of a principle or by whose recommendation Prime Minister Gharibashvili has presented Mr. Janelidze as chief of the counterintelligence service when he presided over MIA or how it happened that he failed to find a better candidate for the post of his counselor on security issues. 

We may not have any complaints for Mr. Janelidze but the post he held in MIA raises a number of questions. It would be interesting to know what kind of role he has played in bringing the so called spies to surface or has all this simply been the Nationals’ whim? What kind of steps has this man taken to keep the released political prisoners’ cases under wraps? It is also necessary to know what deeds he has performed and for what should the Georgian people give him credit, look up to him and recognize him as a great commander-in-chief.

Thus, once again I repeat, their move to replace Alasania with Mr. Janelidze is surrounded by many unanswered questions.

-Could you specify what you mean by the military cooperation between Georgia and France and Georgia and Germany?

I am not entitled to expand on this issue. I would be happy if the newly appointed Defense Minister threw light on this issue. It would be interesting to know what kind of position he has formulated regarding this issue and whether or not he has publicly proclaimed his stance.

- In your mind what kind of scenario could they have elaborated to handle the present political crisis? What are the odds that the necessity to call for snap elections will emerge in Georgia soon? And what impact can the current goings-on in the coalition have on the country’s internal processes?

--We are not really faced with a great deal of different scenarios today. First of all, the Prime Minister’s authority should be reinstated and his image saved. As today Mr. Gharibashvili relies on the steps taken by the Prosecutor’s Office only. And keep in mind that the Prime Minister took the Prosecutor’s Office that has failed to solve one case for two years under his wing. Either he has no idea what is happening in the body today and who presides over it or … if he knows everything perfectly well and is at his ease, this is obviously even worse.

We do remember how strongly his predecessor was determined to shield the Prosecutor’s Office from all kinds of threats and as it appears the young PM is also moved by a similar desire today. And all this makes me smell a rat in the situation; now I think that our Prosecutor’s Office would have nothing against falling into Zurikela Adesihvili’s hands again.

Gharibashvili has really been seen in a good light by our public; however, by covering for today’s Prosecutor’s Office and by patronizing it, he has lost respect and has been led to self-lustration.

As for the second part of your question, I can really say that parliamentary elections do not fall in the Nationals’ interests today since these people may raise their horns before the cameras but actually they are realists and they are well aware of the fact that the outcome they have faced in the elections of October 1, 2012, is not a result of just elections.

When they talked regarding pushing the date of the elections forward by holding them in October instead of July, the argument for not doing so was that by this time the rating of the Georgian Dream Coalition may have fallen. And if such dispositions surface in the Georgian Dream by 2016, talks regarding the early parliamentary elections may really be launched. However, this will be another type of excruciating headache for the leading team since their leader has been replaced and instead of Ivanishvili the team is now headed by Jankarashvili.

Against the present backdrop when the situation in our coalition is rather tough all reigns are in Alasania’s hands; however, now he thinks regarding the future rather then the present developments in the country…

In addition, I do not really rule out that the members of the coalition may adopt a common stance on principle issues of national importance and this can have a positive impact on them as well as future voting. However, today it is extremely difficult to be a member of the body the founders of which view the Free Democrats as their foes and are boldly certain of the fact that they work against the country and its interests. The Georgian Dream is extremely concerned due to the fact that Free Democrats know perfectly well who really withers the country and this can really pose some serious threats for the acting authorities. This information cannot be easily erased from the memories of those people that have really vast experience of dealing with the European institutions.

- If we take the present situation into consideration as well as an announcement from the President who openly stressed that the country cannot be ruled behind the senses how big is the chance that Mr. Ivanishvili will reenter the political arena?

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Ivanishvili will always do what he wants. He has inured the Georgian public to this kind of model of ruling; however, today public awareness is higher and our people can now more easily distinguish good from evil.

- Some experts claim that despite the aggravated situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin will try to profit from the present status quo in Georgia. How big is the chance that Russia will take serious steps in this direction today?

- Russia does not really need to take serious steps in Georgia at this point in time, especially having heard what the Georgian authorities have offered to Abkhazia. This message from the Georgian side has had a really tranquilizing effect on Russia as it has been once again ensured that official Tbilisi will never be able to allocate more funds to Abkhazia for restoring partnership and amicable relations with it than the Kremlin.

Koba Bendeliani

InterPressNews