And maybe Saakashvili, however, is correct
Bidzina Ivanishvili’s headed “Georgian Dream” coalition collapsed, losing its absolute majority in the parliament. Note that Ivanishvili’s headed “Georgian Dream” alliance won a splendid triumph in the 2012 October 1 parliamentary elections in Georgia, and Ivanishvili was elected a prime minister, taking nearly all the power in his hands, promising to leave his office after implementation of certain reforms in the country, so he did. In recent days, Georgia’s domestic political events rapidly developed. Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili dismissed Defense Minister Irakli Alasania. Alasania and his team were considered agents developing the course of European integration in Georgia.
Alasania’s withdrawal was followed by resignation of Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze and his deputy. Georgia’s former defense minister claimed that bringing charges against his ministry officials contains political subtext, and the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office has raised all the issues, which contain an attempt of his assassination in the political plan as an opponent. “It is an attempt of political destruction of the possible competitor and opponent, it is an attempt of political assassination. But they will not succeed. I can tell that he who plans it cannot make me fear of anything to give up the objective of my country’s European integration.”
Georgian State Minister for European Integration, Alexi Petriashvili, who submitted a resignation, noted, “Dictatorship is coming. Democracy is at stake.” As a reason to dismiss Alasania, the Prime Minister of Georgia noted that the government authorities had several times discussed the defense ministry’s procurement-related issues, and had issued reprimands to the defense minister. Irakli Alasania has a high reputation in Georgia. When Ivanishvili resigned the office of the prime minister, Alasania was considered the possible candidate for Prime Minister, but Ivanishvili gave the preference to Irakli Gharibashvili. Alasania is the leader of “Our Georgia. United Democrats” political party. His party constituted a part of “Georgian Dream” alliance and has ten seats in the Parliament. The recent events in Georgia, their motivations will still be discussed, commented, and presented in different versions.
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But former Georgian president’s statements of recent days about the present of Georgia seems to becoming more valuable and worthy of attention, whereas his statements are sometimes perceived as an exaggeration, and the emotion typical to him over the domestic political processes seems not to be adequately perceived. In the interview to Forbes periodical, Georgia’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili announced, “Ivanishvili should be dethroned. Our goal is implement this inevitable process in a way that as a result Russia would not be able to release its hands in Georgia and completely destroy the country’s sovereignty. Or, not to register a violence in Georgia as it happened in Ukraine. The main thing of what happened in the country is that he had come out of the constitutional system. In fact, the main thing is collapsed: the country is governed from the offshore. All decisions are made by one person who is not responsible for anything.”
Saakashvili has again criticized Bidzina Ivanishvili, accusing him that the latter is a performer of Russian interests in Georgia, and that his business interests are associated with the Russian “Gazprom”. Former Georgian President has repeatedly stated that the Georgian government authorities have filed a criminal case against him by the “order of Russia”, he assures that “Russian oligarch Ivanishvili’s interests coincide with the interests of Russia,” and that Ivanishvili is the biggest private shareholder of “Gazprom”. “Ahead to the anniversary of the August war, Putin could not imagine a more desired gift than the order of my arrest by the Georgian state officials,” announced Saakashvili on one occasion. As to what extent the former Georgian president’s charges against Ivanishvili close to the reality, time will tell. However, the events in Georgia have also symbolic significance to the domestic political life in Armenia. The leader of the Armenian National Congress, as it is known, had assumed Gagik Tsarukyan’s “ivanishvilization” patriotic task.
Recall Ter-Petrosyan’s speech in March 1 rally of this year, during which he said, “What makes Tsarukyan less than Ivanishvili (who managed, thanks also to Saakashvili’sdiscretion, carry out a change of power smoothly), or less than Rinat Akhmetov and Sergei Tigipko (who did not allow Yanukovych to declare a state of emergency in Kiev). It is time, therefore, for all political parties, non-governmental organizations, civil movements, the weight-conscious staff of the state apparatus and the business world perceive with soul and mind the whole sense of the super-beneficial moment created currently for the salvation of Armenia, because the responsibility of losing the momentum will fall on all of us, without exception…” Georgia’s dream was somehow interrupted with the collapse of Ivanishvili’s headed “Georgian Dream” coalition. Accordingly, the base of the “Armenian Ivanishvili” operation, too.
Emma GABRIELYAN
