The government has been given a legitimate pretext for a new wave of repressions, which it has already announced – it could be said that fabricated, baseless accusations would have sufficed for repressions, but in this case, the “state coup” narrative was given real grounds for the first time, and the government is likely to escalate further, writes expert Gia Nodia on social media.
According to Nodia’s assessment, this does not mean that all is lost. He believes that in the current situation, the primary tools are principled actions on specific issues and the moral isolation of the government.
“I know that criticizing people in prison, whose patriotism I do not doubt, sounds bad, but staying silent is also wrong. What we saw last night, in which we participated in some form, was, at best, an example of extreme incompetence and naivety, and at worst, irresponsibility.
But it would not be fair to pin the blame solely on those who took the initiative. There was a demand for a revolution in a certain segment of society, and that was entirely logical. If you say that (1) this government cannot be changed through elections and (2) reconciliation with this government is unacceptable (the opposition-minded public was essentially in agreement on both points), what is left?
Many of us proudly noted that the continuous protest lasted over 300 days, but this same situation naturally created restlessness: ‘How long can this go on?’ ‘Let’s do something!’
Everyone I spoke to at the rally came for a peaceful protest and viewed the organizers’ announced ‘government send-off’ with irony. Some believed in it, but they seemed relatively few. But the fact is that a lot of people came to the rally – they had hope for something, though (in most cases) they didn’t know exactly what.
What happened is very bad for two reasons. The first is the depression and sense of defeat: the same day showed that neither elections nor revolution can achieve anything. So what do we do?
The second, and perhaps more dangerous, is that the government was given a legitimate pretext for a new wave of repressions, which it has already announced. It could be said that fabricated, baseless accusations would have sufficed for repressions, but in this case, the ‘state coup’ narrative was given real grounds for the first time, and the government is likely to escalate further.
This does not mean that ‘all is lost.’ Sorry for repeating myself, but in the current situation, our main weapons are principled actions on specific issues and the moral isolation of the government.
This is not enough to change the government, but it is necessary to maintain the foundation that a more dignified Georgia must rely on in the future (I don’t know exactly when, but it will definitely happen),” Nodia states.
Gia Nodia: Criticizing people in prison sounds bad, but what we saw was an example of incompetence and naivety, or at worst, irresponsibility – the “state coup” narrative was given real grounds for the first time
