Georgian Parliament official discusses attempts to artificially create destabilisation in country at annual OSCE PA session

Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Georgian Parliament and Head of the Permanent Delegation of Georgia to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, on Monday participated in the annual session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, taking place in the Portuguese city of Porto.

Within the framework of the session, meetings of the General Committees on Political Affairs and Security as well as Economic Affairs and Environmental Protection were held.

During his speech at the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security, Samkharadze discussed attempts to artificially create destabilisation in Georgia, which, as he claimed, was financed from abroad.

He further noted that the Georgian Government categorically disagreed with the assessments that spoke of politically motivated detentions and restrictions on media independence.

“Georgia is currently facing a number of internal and external challenges. Each of these challenges is due to direct or indirect foreign interference. Twenty percent of Georgia’s territory, the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, is still occupied by Russia. Inside the country, we see desperate attempts to artificially create destabilisation, which are financed from abroad. This means that various foreign powers are trying to encroach on our sovereignty and territorial integrity”, Samkharadze said.

“We strongly disagree with the content of some resolutions, attempts to restrict peaceful assembly, freedom and independence of the media in Georgia. The best evidence of the freedom of peaceful assembly in Georgia is the blocking of the central avenue in Tbilisi by several people over the past few months. They are doing this peacefully and therefore their right is protected. No one bothers them, even though their number is not enough to block the central avenue”, he continued.

He also discussed the media pluralism in the country and the people arrested at the protest rallies, which as he said was not politically motivated.

“As for media independence, the latest OSCE report also noted that we have media pluralism in Georgia. Although polarised, it is a pluralistic and independent media. As for the record of politically motivated arrests, these arrests occurred due to the November-December riots, during which more than sixty police officers were injured. One of them lost his sight. Several of them required surgical intervention. Accordingly, it is clear that police officers were attacked and the protest rallies were not peaceful, but violent. That is why the perpetrators of these crimes are detained and court proceedings are underway. These are not politically motivated arrests, but these people were arrested for committing a crime”, he concluded.