The only response to what happened yesterday is: everyone to the streets! This was stated by Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of the “Coalition for Change,” who is currently in detention, in a telephone conversation shared on his Facebook page.
According to Japaridze, everyone must take to the streets because it is everyone’s responsibility, except for “those people who, even after yesterday evening’s events, continue to talk about Tbilisi’s sewage problems—those people are beyond help.”
“I want to say a word or two about yesterday’s events.
What happened at Melikishvili, at the so-called headquarters of Kaladze, and the ambush organized against peaceful demonstrators is indicative of several things:
The fact that a group-organized, vulgar spectacle was staged in the middle of Vera shows one thing: these people can no longer freely appear on the streets of Tbilisi. They move in limited areas, and even there, they are accompanied by 20-person security details.
The thugs who were beating those young people yesterday are not locals either. Except for one or two, they were all brought to Melikishvili from elsewhere. In other words, they couldn’t find 50 tough guys in Vera who would dare to do what those people did without masks—what this ‘Georgian Shame,’ as they call themselves, ‘Georgian Dream,’ has been doing for years.
So, what was Geno Petriashvili doing on Melikishvili?
The fact that they need violence and then deploy their entire propaganda media to vilify the people who have been organizing these marches for 10 months—during which not a single hair has fallen from anyone’s head—shows that they are the ones who are scared. The only thing they have left is brute, physical force. This is also evident from the fact that since this morning, Kaladze has been moving around with the same ‘titushky’ for his PR events because he’s afraid someone might confront him, and he’s not confident that Mdinardze’s police will protect him.
As for the police, no matter what internal conflicts they may have—and it’s clear they have some—it’s been clear for a long time that we don’t have a police force. This is just a Russian-style ‘Rosgvardia,’ like the one Putin has, which is a force that doesn’t maintain order or justice, nor does it protect citizens’ safety. They are everywhere and always protecting only the regime—first and foremost, the regime’s leader, then the regime’s pillars, including the regime’s ‘titushky,’ because they too are a pillar of this regime.
With this realization, we must take to the streets and join any protest.
And finally, what happened yesterday has only one response: everyone to the streets!
Not to fight, not for confrontation, not for revenge—no.
Only peacefully, calmly, and confidently. This fight is not won by those who have more muscle—that’s what they think—but by those who don’t give up, don’t stop, and, even after every fall, get up and keep fighting! We all need to be in the streets! Everyone must come out. This is everyone’s responsibility, except for those people who, even today, after yesterday’s events, continue to talk about Tbilisi’s sewage problems—those people are beyond help, at least until October 5, and who knows even after that, I’m not sure about that either.
If we are few, they grow bold and become aggressive. When we are few, we are weak, and weakness, as one very wise man said, is provocative to immoral scoundrels—it’s then that they get the urge to act violently. But if we are many, they… in reality, they are scared and hide.
We are many, the power is on our side, so everyone come out and defend something greater than your personal comfort. In the end, we won’t be born again in this world.
Today, being out on the streets is truly a test of morality,” writes Zurab Japaridze.
Zurab Japaridze: What happened yesterday has only one response: everyone to the streets! This is everyone’s responsibility, except for those people who are still talking about Tbilisi’s sewage problems today – those people are beyond help
