Since the end of last week a series of demonstrations have taken place in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi with tens of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili. On Friday several thousand demonstrated in Batumi, Georgia’s largest port.
The protests are the biggest since the so-called “Rose revolution” of 2003 that elevated Saakashvili and his pro-Western government into office with the support of the US and European powers.
The demonstrators regard the head of state as responsible for the consequences of the war with Russia in August last year. With the backing of the US, Georgia sent troops into the Republic of South Ossetia in an action that largely destroyed the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, resulted in hundreds of casualties and forced tens of thousands of south Ossetians to flee across the border to neighbouring Russia. In response, Russia sent in its troops and drove the Georgian army out of the region. Following the Georgian aggression the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were recognized as independent by Moscow.
Saakashvili is also accused by his opponents of reacting inappropriately to the financial crisis, which has now struck the former Soviet republic with full force. In addition they criticize the myriad forms of corruption to be found at all levels of the Georgian state.
The opposition has announced it will continue its protests until Saakashvili resigns. For his part, the president has declared his determination to stay in office until the elections planned for 2013.
Saakashvili is profoundly unpopular with the mass of the country’s 4.5 million inhabitants and has a tradition of cracking down hard on any opposition. In November 2007 the government forcibly suppressed peaceful demonstrations and imposed a state of emergency over Georgia. State forces stormed and shut down several transmitters, including the private station Imedi TV, critical of the government. Around 600 demonstrators were hospitalized by police at the time. Last year the country’s regulatory commission banned the Maestro station from transmitting political programs.
At the same time poverty remains prevalent across the country, and the situation has not improved since Saakashvili took over government from his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze. Nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line and most families are dependent on funds sent from relatives working abroad. The average national pension amounts to approximately €20. While the country has registered economic growth of up to 9 percent in recent years, unemployment levels remain high and stand around 40 percent in the capital city.
The justified anger of broad layers of the population against the right-wing, corrupt government only finds a distorted expression in the protests, however. Behind the protests is an opposition alliance recruited in the main from former supporters of Saakashvili.
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