Allegations of police violence have emerged as citizens protest the recently re-elected Georgian Dream party’s decision to suspend EU accession talks.
Over 300 people have been detained in Georgia since protests erupted six nights ago over the ruling Georgian Dream’s decision to halt the country’s negotiations to join the EU.
Images widely circulated on social media show injured Georgians in the streets and violent clashes between protesters and police officers using tear gas.
One photo shows a woman holding a Georgian flag being hit by a stream of water from a water cannon. Others show protesters firing pyrotechnics towards the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party has accused opposition politicians of orchestrating the violence, and blames them for protesters’ injuries.
However, on Tuesday, Georgia’s public ombudsman described the violence as torture and brutality, accusing the police of using excessive force against the demonstrators.
Volker Türk, the UN’s top human rights official, has called the use of force against protesters “extremely worrying”.
Robin Dunnigan, the US ambassador to Georgia, said that the embassy had witnessed “police violence” and called on Georgian Dream to reconsider its decision to not pursue EU accession negotiations.
In a public address on Tuesday, Kobakhidze acknowledged there were incidents of violence during the first two days of protests but insisted the situation was under control and that “appropriate measures had been taken in the following days to prevent further escalation”.
He also praised the response of police officers, saying that the response had met “higher standards than those seen in Europe and the USA”.
Georgia’s EU bid halted
Georgian Dream’s announcement that it would be halting accession talks to the EU on the 28 November came hours after the European Parliament adopted a resolution critical of the result of October’s election, in which the party secured a parliamentary majority.
The result of the election has been hotly contested by the country’s opposition groups and many international observers, who claim that the electoral process was unfair and rigged by various methods.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support earlier this year after Georgian Dream passed its so-called “foreign agents” bill, which critics say mimics legislation passed in Russia.
Polling has shown that a majority of Georgians are in favour of the country joining the EU.
During its election campaign, Georgian Dream insisted the party was in favour of joining the bloc, but said that they wanted to join under their own terms.
After announcing his government was suspending the accession process, Kobakhidze said it wasn’t true that Georgia’s European integration had been halted, with the party only rejecting “the shameful and offensive blackmail, which was, in fact, a significant obstacle to our country’s European integration”.
ADVERTISEMENTNevertheless, the party’s declaration has been met with widespread concern in the West. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and enlargement commissioner Marta Kos released a joint statement on Sunday noting that the decision was a “shift” from the policies of “all previous Georgian governments”.
They reiterated that the EU was concerned about the “continuous democratic backsliding of the country” and urged Georgian authorities to “respect the right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression”.
The US State Department issued a statement on Saturday condemning Georgia Dream’s decision and announcing it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia.
For his part, Kobakhidze has claimed that Georgian Dream is waiting for the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump in January next year to begin a “complete reset” of US-Georgia relations.
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