Georgian Parliament Speaker accuses OSCE Chair of showing support for organisers of violent coup attempt by joining protesters on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday accused Elina Valtonen, Finland’s Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, of showing support for the organisers of a violent coup attempt by joining protesters on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.

In a social media message, Papuashvili noted that Valtonen violated Georgian law by standing at the protest site.

“What you observe is the scene of a few dozen radicals, who stormed the presidential palace a few days ago and injured 25 police officers, two of them gravely, blocking the road, in violation of law. Georgian legislation, like that of any OSCE member country, offers the guarantees of the right to assemble everywhere, and the blocking of the road is only acceptable when the large number of people cannot be contained on the sidewalk. The Finnish minister may not be aware of this but she would not be able to name a single case when this right was violated by the Georgian state in the last 13 years”, the Speaker said.

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Papuashvili pointed out that directly behind the Minister was the square in front of the Parliament building, where a peaceful rally ten times larger than the current one could take place without blocking the road.

“What the Finnish minister and OSCE Chairperson is doing right there is a violation of Georgian legislation. It also violates article 41 of the Vienna convention, which, ironically, was adopted in the same city where the OSCE is headquartered. What she thus shows to Georgian people is that she supports the violent coup organizers and that the rules-based international order is an empty phrase”, Papuashvili continued.

The Speaker stressed that “Finnish authorities are much less lenient towards the road-blocking protesters in Helsinki than in Tbilisi”.