NGOs that influence political processes in Georgia will come under fire

InterPressNews sat down with psychologist Valerian Gorgiladze to discuss acute issues of Georgia’s domestic and foreign policy.

- After Ivanishvili criticized certain NGOs, their representatives urged the government to refrain from pressuring them. Psychologist Nodar Sarjveladze thinks that Ivanishvili came down on the NGO sector to discredit them and bring his own NGO into the mainstream. Do you share his opinion?

- Ivanishvili’s TV project will target unreliable experts and NGOs that refused to express unflinching loyalty to him; his informative campaign will also be directed against them, since they are the ones who mobilize public opinion in Georgia.  

In the present state of affairs, Bidzina Ivanishvili is obviously trying to create his own space in the NGO sector, to reduce the existing NGOs’ influence on our people.

- The ex-PM’s criticism was aimed at NGOs that are being financed by the West; however, he has refrained from criticizing the Russian-backed NGOs and the number of them has substantially increased. These organizations are apparently against Georgia’s European aspirations as well as its foreign vector. What can you say regarding this issue?

- Generally, I dismiss questions about some marginal forces, since they lack the ability to in any way influence political processes in the country. However, it’s also an irrefutable fact that these organizations and their leaders form our political agenda as well as our opinions regarding the EU Parliamentary Assembly, European Parliament as well as other international organizations. The fight seems to be directed against those NGOs that can actually direct political processes together with European or American institutions.