The President of Georgia met with the Mayor and Chairman of the City Council of Martvili today. The Head of State condemned the facts of oppressing the local self governance while speaking with Mamuka Danelia and Zaal Gorozia, and called on them to have integrity and fulfill their duty. According to him, everyone in the country must have an opportunity to fulfill their duty. As Mikheil Saakashvili noted, this lawlessness should end once and for all, and an international reaction has already followed it. The President stated that such actions show a precedent of provincial dictatorship in the country.
Mikheil Saakashvili also noted that he welcomes the initiative of the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia regarding the creation of a special cooperation group, and expressed readiness to cooperate.
“Unfortunately this is not a normal situation and I suspect it is coordinated with the Government of Georgia. Everything is being done by the order of the Prime Minister, based on the information I have, and the international observers also…despite his promises and those members of the Government that this would not happen. I welcome the initiative of the Speaker of Parliament who said that a special group must be created in order to interfere in this issue and not only stop it, but improve the existing situation as well. I would like to say that the Government of Georgia is showing signals of instability and chaos today. How can the government coordinate hooligan actions, chaos, and the collapse of social infrastructure? It is the duty of government to keep order and protect institutions; it is the government’s duty to decide specific issues for prosperity of the people in a working environment. I am grateful to you because you are a very good Mayor. I am also grateful to the Martvili City Council, which shows special integrity. Exactly the same thing is happening in Keda…situation is very specific. Activists of a specific group are entering, followed by the representatives of the prosecutor’s office. In one of the regions of Samegrelo the Mayor was forced to sign a resignation in a police car and others were threatened by arrests at the prosecutor’s office. They arrested the son of the Keda Majoritarian Deputy on drug charges, and transferred him from the fraction of the United National Movement as a result of leverage. Let’s be frank. Did he leave because of his political beliefs? He left because his son was arrested for drugs and they returned his son in exchange for his transfer. They stopped the car business of one deputy, and that’s how they forced him to transfer to their fraction. The other one is being threatened by arresting his family members. They brought charges against several deputies… these are not isolated cases. They are all coordinated and I would like to tell the Government, which is doing this: in the end this will take us towards a provincial dictatorship and chaos. This will take Georgia back 10-15 years. They won’t be able to handle people. There are the Georgian people, legal procedures, the international community, and no matter what we do in terms of our northern neighbor we are a European country. And in a European country no government can survive acting in such a way. This is why I would like to tell you that you must not resign. They must respect the rule of law. Based on the law, the local self governance is elected until 2014 and they must serve the people; the city councils and the government. The President and the Parliament must also serve the people – this is the principle of government structure in every country. We must stop in time before we reach the abyss and return the country back because something will start that no future government will be able to reverse. I hope the people who are coordinating this still have common sense and they won’t push Georgia’s regions, cities and villages into the abyss. We need stability and long term development. The government, parliament, and self-government have their terms. If the government will set a precedent of shortening the term of the local self-government this is bad for them. I truly do not want for constitutional imbalance to occur because of such actions. If Davit Usupashvili is seriously considering stopping this lawlessness then we – the members of the parliament minority are ready to be his and the majority’s partners in doing so. If they continue such actions it will be followed by some legal procedures as well as a public reaction. Unfortunately, the international reaction has already occurred. If we continue like this we will end up in a full international misunderstanding and we will be completely unprotected, we will see shame on a European and world scale and most importantly, we will harm our country long term. I would like to tell you and members of all city councils: don’t be afraid of anything. Instead of having mayors sit in their offices and work we have to discuss such issues. We need development, and I think the lawlessness must stop” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.
Mamuka Danelia noted while speaking to the President: the Martvili city government was surrounded by protesters for 22 days, and it has been a week since his staff was able to start working normally. According to him, it was possible to deal with social, financial and other important issues to the region in this time period, but as he told the President, the city government office has been surrounded by protesters since this morning. He stated that despite the fact that it is the end of the fiscal year, his staff is still unable to work normally in such conditions.