“Do you know what kind of term ‘peaceful overthrow’ is? It’s an oxymoron, like ‘kind Saakashvili,’” said Mamuka Mdinaradze, head of the State Security Service, to journalists, responding to the statement by Levan Khabeishvili, a leader of the “National Movement,” about the peaceful overthrow of the “Georgian Dream” government.
According to him, everything must be called by its proper name to ensure the state functions properly and to prevent anyone from harming national interests through minor turbulences.
“‘Peaceful overthrow’ – do you know what kind of term that is? It’s an oxymoron, like ‘kind Saakashvili.’ You can’t seriously comment on such statements from such people. This is not a challenge troubling the country today. At most, they’ll try to create minor turbulence. Our service exists to ensure the country avoids such minor turbulences. There’s no danger of this having serious consequences. The most they risk is slightly damaging the economy or making people nervous. Beyond that, the word ‘overthrow’ and their calls cannot be peaceful. ‘Overthrow’ and ‘peace’ are mutually exclusive.
As a lawyer, I wouldn’t pay as much attention to this as to other statements by these people, where signs of criminal activity might be more evident. Everything must be called by its proper name so the state can function properly. No one should have the opportunity to harm national interests through minor turbulences,” Mdinaradze stated.
He also responded to information released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which stated that among the individuals detained at a protest on Rustaveli Avenue, police confiscated a firearm from one of them.
According to Mdinaradze, when a person moves among protesters with an automatic rifle-like weapon, it’s easy to assume some provocation may have been planned.
“We don’t know exactly, but we can assume what provocation and its negative consequences the city, or even the country, avoided yesterday. It’s too early to say definitively. The fact is, when a person moves among protesters with an automatic rifle-like weapon, it’s easy to assume some provocation may have been planned, but the investigation will provide answers to the details. This is fresh news, and I’ll look into this matter first thing,” Mdinaradze noted.
Mamuka Mdinaradze: Do you know what the term “peaceful overthrow” means? It’s like “kind Saakashvili,” roughly such an oxymoron – they will try some minor turbulence, but our service exists to prevent these little turbulences from happening
