Protests in Georgia against the government’s decision to postpone EU accession talks until 2028 began in late November and show no signs of slowing down.
On Sunday, Estonia and Lithuania imposed sanctions against 14 high-ranking Georgian officials. A day later, the country’s ruling party Georgian Dream responded with a statement claiming the sovereignty of the two Baltic countries was the “most limited” in the EU and that the Estonian and Lithuanian authorities have yet to break free of the Soviet mentality.
Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna then summoned Georgian Ambassador Zurab Khamashuridze to discuss that “hostile” statement as well as the violence committed against Georgian citizens, opposition leaders and journalists.
Having previously spoken to Georgians in Tbilisi about their experience of the protests, this week ERR News found out from Georgians living in Estonia how they have been experiencing the events back home.
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Vasiko Khorava is a Master’s student at the University of Tartu. He told ERR News that while he has participated in numerous demonstrations in Georgia since 2019, being in Estonia now means he can only follow the current developments online.
“Observing from far away the dire events that have undermined decades-long efforts to democratize Georgia has been uneasy,” Khorava said.
“My relative inability to participate in the processes in Tbilisi and offer my help to my fellow demonstrators [who are] experiencing serious physical abuse and mistreatment from the justice system felt like a betrayal. Even writing supporting posts on social media did not feel genuine, contributive, or even worthy,” he added.
Georgians protesting in Tallinn, December 2024. Source: Vasiko Khorava
Despite being far from home, Khorava has been able to contribute in other ways by “supporting organizations working in Tbilisi that are supplying demonstrators with protective kits, and participating in the public gathering in front of the Georgian Embassy in Estonia.”
Khorava said he has been surprised by the events unfolding in Georgia – in more ways than one.
On one hand, he pointed to the “scale and brutality of the operation of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of InternaI Affairs” and the use of “different means to sow fear amongst protestors,” including “attacks on journalists by government-paid thugs and anonymous threatening calls to activists.”
However, he also said support for the protests has been even larger than expected. “Hundreds have condemned the actions of the MIA and the decision to postpone the EU accession process,” particularly from employees in the public sector, “who now face the risk of being fired under the proposed amendments to the ‘Law on Public Service.’”
Khorava believes the postponement of EU accession talks was a way “to buy time for the Georgian Dream party to solidify its rule,” by subverting the few remaining independent and capable political institutions, as well as “enact a series of laws into full force that will undermine civil society, opposition parties, and critical media.”
“However, as we can see clearly, this has been a grave miscalculation,” Khorava said, adding that diverging from the path toward EU membership has “connotations of existential importance for Georgians.”
“People understand that this decision will further weaken our institutions and state capabilities, as well as increase the leverage and influence of Russia on the country,” he said.
“The ideal solution to this crisis would be for Georgian Dream to compromise and schedule an election in the coming months,” according to Khorava. However, he believes the ruling party will not be willing to “put national interests above its own.”
When it comes to Estonia, Khorava pointed out that its relationship with Georgia has been close since both countries regained independence from the Soviet Union.
“Georgian people remember the presence of Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in the capital during the August War of 2008,” Khorava said, adding that the current sanctions against Georgian government officials “stand in the spirit of this age-old support Estonia has for the democratic aspirations of the Georgian people.”
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Vakhtang Chkhenkeli is from Georgia’s Abkhazia region and now lives in Tallinn. Like Khorava, he has also participated in several previous protests back home, including those against the introduction of the Russian-inspired “foreign agent” law.
Chkhenkeli told ERR News that the events now unfolding in Georgia have left him with a feeling of “hopelessness.” “The situation is getting worse and worse every day,” he said. “We always think this is the last thing they can do, that there is a red line that they’re not going to cross. But every day this red line is crossed.”
“I feel that there is no justice in any way,” Chkhenkeli continued, adding that in general, the situation gives him the same feeling as if “someone has died close to me and there is nothing you can do.”
On Saturday, December 14, Chkhenkeli was among the members of Estonia’s Georgian community, who met with the country’s Ambassador to Estonia Zurab Khamashuridze. The meeting was organized by Gruusia Maja (Georgian House), an umbrella organization representing different Georgian organizations in Estonia.
Chkhenkeli told ERR News he joined the meeting because, like many other people from his country now living in Estonia, he is “an ordinary Georgian, who is terrified of what’s going on in Georgia.”
In the week prior to the meeting, posters had appeared around Tallinn and Tartu depicting the Georgian ambassador as a “missing person.” According to a post on Gruusia Maja’s social media page, there had been no communication between Khamashuridze and the organization’s board or other Georgians in the two weeks since the protests began.
Chkhenkeli said those who put up the posters “wanted Estonians and people living in Estonia to see that he isn’t doing anything, and also to do something eye catching. So, it was good, I think,” adding that during Saturday’s meeting, the ambassador “mentioned that this didn’t affect his decision to talk to us.”
However, not all members of Tallinn’s Georgian community thought the posters were the right way to get the ambassador’s attention, Chkhenkeli explained. Some said it was “shameful” for them to be put up outside Tallinn’s Russian Embassy for example.
“But I think this is where he belongs. If you serve a government who does everything against their people, it’s not only about diplomatic relations and representing the country. We told him during the meeting that he represents this party and so he’s as responsible as anyone for those decisions.”
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Chkhenkeli said that Estonia’s Georgian community did not come away from Saturday’s meeting with answers to their most pressing questions.
“We were trying to stick to the agenda, to talk about current problems, but [the ambassador] tried to shift the discussion into a different field. It was very annoying,” Chkhenkeli said of the meeting, adding that it also got “very loud.”
“We asked [the ambassador] about progress, what has been done to address the issues we have with our foreign partners,” Chkhenkeli explained. “But we got a strange answer – that we are discussing free roaming (not having to pay additional charges to use mobile phone services outside your home country – ed.) between Georgia and the EU or that Georgia is joining SEPA (the Single Euro Payments Area – ed.).”
“People are being tortured in Tbilisi right now, and people are afraid to go out. And we are hearing that we may have free roaming in the future – it’s ridiculous.”
“Every day we are moving further and further away, not only from the European Union but these European values, where human rights are respected and you are not living in a police state.”
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Chkhenkeli said he is pleased with Estonia’s response to the situation so far, particularly the sanctions against key government officials, and expressed hope that it could pave the way for other EU countries to follow suit.
“I’m really thankful that they are the first country to do this. I don’t know if this will have an actual effect on the people who are sanctioned, but maybe it will open the door for other bigger countries to also sanction them,” he said. “But Estonia can’t do the things that we Georgians have to do.”
On the day Chkhenkeli spoke to ERR News, Georgian Dream released a statement in response to those sanctions stating Estonia and Lithuania have the “least sovereignty” among EU countries and are yet to break free of the Soviet mentality.
In his view, the statement brings into the open, something Georgian Dream have been concealing for a number of years – “that they’re openly anti-Europe, anti-European Union and anti-our-partners. I don’t think anyone in a sane mind would criticize Estonia for being Soviet-minded,” he said.
“This also illustrates how Georgian Dream thinks about our allies,” Chkhenkeli added. “Estonia is probably the biggest ally of Georgia, along with Poland and Lithuania.”
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As for the next steps, Chkhenkeli believes there is still “a long road ahead.”
“Nobody wants violence,” he said. “I’m from Abkhazia and my family has seen war. We have been living this scene for 30 years. But I’ve never felt so proud as when I attended demonstrations in Georgia, because not a single person had any violence in mind. It was truly a popular protest with kids and people just sitting there talking and demanding what we have been aspiring for. I don’t think this non-violent mindset of people has changed but I don’t know how can we address the violence from the government,” he added.
“You know, we Georgians often think that Georgia is the center of the universe, and everything is decided in Georgia. I realize that it’s not,” Chkhenkeli smiles.
“But hopefully, despite this, Estonians will support us till the end. Because we need outside support. We see that there is a whole state apparatus against the people in Georgia. We can really benefit from the support of our friends abroad.”
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Publish date : 2024-12-17 09:18:00
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The post Estonia’s Georgians discuss protests: ‘Every day a red line is crossed’ | News first appeared on Love Europe.
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Author : love-europe
Publish date : 2024-12-17 20:14:28
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