Growing tensions are waving Georgia. Sunday, February 2, police arrested two opposition figures, Nika Melia and Guigui Ogoulava, during a demonstration aimed at blocking a highway leading to the center of the capital Tbilissi. The authorities warned that this action would be punishable by four years in prison.
Nika Melia, briefly detained, accuses of having been struck by a police officer in police custody. Videos broadcast by the Pirveli channel show demonstrators struck during their arrest.
The EU strongly criticized these arrests. “The brutal repression of peaceful demonstrators, journalists and politicians in Tbilissi is unacceptable,” said Kaja Kallas, head of European diplomacy. “Georgia does not meet the expectations of an EU candidate country. The EU supports the Georgian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy.”
For three months, the country has faced an unprecedented constitutional crisis, with the opposition refusing to sit in the new parliament. Georgia is shaken by massive mobilizations denouncing the authoritarian drift of the ruling party, a Georgian dream.
The decision to suspend the EU membership process, taken by the Georgian Prime Minister Iraqi Kobakhidze, and his government, is perceived as a betrayal by pro-Western youth which fears a rapprochement with Russia.
