Georgian Parliament official: radical opposition will never drag Georgia into war

Giorgi Sosiashvili, the Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science, and Youth Affairs, on Saturday declared that the radical opposition’s attempts to destabilise Georgia and provoke unrest were doomed to fail, stressing that as long as the ruling Georgian Dream party was in power, the country would remain on a peaceful path.

In his remarks, Sosiashvili noted that domestic radical opposition had no support from the Georgian people.

“They have become a complete misunderstanding. Don’t their patrons realise that these people no longer have a place in society? They have no support from the Georgian people. These radicals no longer have any standing, yet they still try to make a last-ditch effort, raise tensions in society, and call on people to take to the streets”, Sosiashvili stated.

He argued that the October 4 rally, announced by the opposition leaders, was “doomed to fail” because the public saw through their intentions.

“The people see very clearly that our main message to the world is to build a peaceful Georgia, unlike them, because they once tore our country apart and plunged it into an abyss on the orders of their patrons, and we will not allow this to happen again. As long as the Georgian Dream is in power, they will never succeed in dragging our country into the storm of war”, he noted.

Sosiashvili also commented on the changing rhetoric of opposition figures, accusing them of trying to mask their calls for unrest.

“You see how they’ve changed their rhetoric. Initially, they threatened a coup and a peaceful overthrow, but now the former singer [Paata Burchuladze] has changed his rhetoric and put himself in a ridiculous position. I’ll say directly that his outbursts and statements are excessive. He’s changed his terminology because he sees that playing with such rhetoric against the state won’t work, and the state will have a very strict and immediate response to any such statements that call for revolutionary scenarios or the overthrow of the country. Now they’ve polished their terms and are doing such things”, Sosiashvili concluded.