Press Digest 12.11.2014

What triggered physical altercation in Akhmeta, the opposing sides’ opinions

“Some members of the Government don’t want the rift between President Margvelashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili to be healed”

Nationals hope that 40 thousand people will join their protest event

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What triggered physical altercation in Akhmeta, the opposing sides’ opinions

"Clashes between the Kists and the residents of Akhmeta have resulted in the apprehension of two Georgians from Akhmeta and two Kists from Pankisi. The both sides have accused the police officials of pursuing the practice of selective justice; as they claim, the law-enforcers have thrown absolutely innocent people to jail. As the Georgians involved in the conflict allege, the brash and irritating behavior of Zviad Zviadauris Kist friends has sparked this conflict. However, as per them, the police released the guilty Kists and have arrested two innocent Georgians instead of them. The locals of Pankisi are trying to rebut this allegation by claiming that the police in the region of Akhmeta have subjected the Kists to ethnic persecution and whenever, a conflict occurs between the Georgians and the Kists, they always hold the Kists accountable for this first. Yesterday, in the village of Duisi, the locals staged a protest rally outside the police building. At the demonstration, their key requirement was the release of two Kists as well as a transparent investigation,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“It would be interesting to know that fueled the conflict between the Georgians and Kists on Sunday, when two Kists, Ruslan and Beslan Alkhanishvilis, beat the Georgian, Nodar Tchtchiashvili. However, this conflict between them was not triggered on an ethnic basis. As both sides avers, they were involved in the verbal altercation due to a broken car mirror. The Alkhanishvilis are members of the Georgian Dream and friends of Deputy Zurab Zviadauri, while Chitchiashvili is an activist of the National Movement. Tcitchiashvili who lost consciousness after the beating was transferred to the hospital of Akhmeta, while Ruslan and Beslan Alkhanishvili were apprehended but then released soon after the brother of Akhmeta’s majoritarian deputy, Zurab Zviadauri, entered the Akhmeta police station. However, MIA has refused to release a comment regarding this issue,” says the article.

“The incident was allegedly followed by some physical altercations; the relatives of the victims and their abusers were also involved in conflict later. First in the region of Akhmeta, Tchitchiashvili’s relatives beat Jokola Atchishvili and than a physical altercation occurred between the locals of Akhmeta and Pankisi at Akhmeta-Pankisi road. In the wake of this altercation, one of the locals of Akhmeta, Lasha Davitashvili, was severely wounded. In order to stifle the conflict, they called SWAT members and all night the section of the Akhmeta-Duisi road was blocked and traffic movement restricted. After this two-day conflict three men were severely injured: Georgian, Lasha Davitashvili as well as Nodar Tchitchiashvili and Kist Jokola Tchatchishvili who was released from hospital yesterday. As MIA informs, investigation into Tchitchiashvili’s case is underway under article 125. However, they refused to corroborate information saying that nobody has been incarcerated after Tchitchiashvili was beaten. As for Apishvili, who was also beaten, an investigation into his case has not been launched at all,” reads the paper.

“Both sides having been involved in the conflict have their arguments through which they try to prove their innocence. As Kist Jokola Atchishvili, who is a member of NGO “Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights” and who sustained wounds to his head, claims, he was not involved in the physical altercation and was beaten because of his ethnicity…

Allegations also go that this conflict does not have political or ethnical grounds and thanks to endeavor of Akmeta’s police officials, it was deliberately morphed into ethnical conflict.

However, as Head of the National Movement Headquarters, Shakro Terterashvili, alleges, on this particular occasion, we have to deal with selective justice as well as double standards. According to him the residents of Pankisi were released on the spur of the moment due to the fact that they hobnob with the Prime Minister and are on friendly terms with Zviadauri,” claims Terterashvili.

“Some members of the Government don’t want the rift between President Margvelashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili to be healed”

"Bidzina Ivanishvili’s and my political path will hardly cross each other in the future; neither I nor Ivanishvili are in politics today. However, nothing has changed in our personal relations. Politics is one thing and personal relations another. As for his move to pass harsh criticism on Irakli Alasania and Giorgi Margvelashvili, in relation to this issue, I can say that despite the fact that by rights, Bidzina Ivanishvili must be angrier with Alasania than Margvelashvili, because of some obscure reasons, he has proven unable to “digest” the mistakes of Mr. Margvelashvil; however, when it comes to Irakli Alasania, he seems to be more tolerant. In my mind, the relations between the President and Bidzina Ivanishvili are of a more subjective nature. Actually, no objective problem exists between them and this makes us think that sooner or later the rift between them will be healed,” declares Bidzina Ivanishvili’s former counselor, expert Gia Khukhashvili, in his interview with the Alia gazette.

“Unfortunately, some decisions are still being made behind the scenes in this country and the latest developments are a clear testimony to this fact. Take Irakli Alasania’s behavior, for instance. This behavior is rather paradoxical as by taking such actions, he aims to deal with political issues through unofficial relations. However, these words are not applicable to Alasania only as the entire Georgian policy is afflicted with this ailment,” states Gia Khukhashvili.

“Some people in the executive government as well as in other branches of the government are not interested in resolving this conflict between President Margvelashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili. They have skillfully benefited from Margvelashvili’s statement saying that the country cannot be ruled by a man behind-the-scenes. They tried their best to ensure Mr. Ivanishvili that Margvelashvili implicated him in this statement. In this way, they forced Ivanishvili to put Margvelashvili in his bad books; however, I still think that the conflict between them is not fundamental and it will be resolved in the short run,” states the respondent.

“I do share the former PM’s opinion as per which a clever politician voluntarily relinquishes his power whenever questions arises regarding a Ministry over which he presides or whenever his and his colleagues’ integrity is challenged. As soon as these questions are answered, he has the right to retake his post and reinstate his name. Instead of this, Mr. Alasania became the head of a political party, and, in my mind, by taking this step he dealt a rather big blow to his political partners. Alasania’s taken step has simply left us with an impression that he decided to become a political figure to defend himself from a presumable apprehension,” concludes the respondent.

Nationals hope that 40 thousand people will join their protest event

"No to Annexation – two leaders of the opposition as well as the representatives of several NGOs have joined the protest event by the Nationals. As one of the leaders of the party, Nugzar Tsiklauri states, around 40 thousand people are expected to be gathered at the rally. According to him, the demonstration is expected to last for a day; however, in his words, if the Government fails to take some effective and aim-oriented steps in this direction, the protest rallies are likely to become commonplace in Georgia,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.

“Today, when they are directing unrelenting aggression against Georgia and are annexing its breakaway regions from it, tell me, what is our Government doing to prevent this from happening?! Unfortunately, it is as dumb as an oyster… and if the Government bites its tongue, the people must voice concerns over the present developments and must have a final say in their future. With this in mind, we are strongly determined to hold a protest event at which our people will proclaim their stance,” stated one of the leaders of the National Movement, Nika Melia.

“We fall short of information regarding how many members of different NGOs will be present at our rally as more and more people are joining us each day. As for our activists, we have already stressed that we expect as many as 40 thousand protesters to join our demonstration and stand by us. Thus, this rally will be rather large-scale, and it will involve the representatives of our regional parties as well as different political groups,” Nugzar Tsiklauri told the paper Rezonansi.

“A report that we have already filed at the City Hall says that the event will be wrapped up in a day. Thus, our protesters will hold a short rally; however, if the Government fails to iron out a solution to this immensely vulnerable issue, we don’t exclude that similar events will be conducted in the future too,” stresses Nugzar Tsiklauri.