Georgian diplomats resigns, protests continue after suspension of EU bid
- 1 December, 14:46
Four Georgian diplomats have resigned in protest to the government’s U-turn in EU accession process.
On Friday, Georgia’s Ambassador to Bulgaria Otar Berdzenishvili resigned over the suspension of EU accession talks. Ambassadors to the Netherlands, Italy, and Lithuania followed suit by rendering their resignation on Saturday.
A few hours after the government’s decision on November 29, the Georgian diplomatic corps issued a statement saying that suspending EU accession negotiations run counter to Georgia’s strategic interests. The statement has since been signed by over diplomats in Georgia and abroad.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced on Thursday that the government’s decision had to do with “blackmail and manipulation” from some of the bloc’s politicians. The decision to suspend EU accession talks were followed by thousands-strong protests across Georgia. Protests intensified on Saturday throughout the country, including in Kutaisi Batumi, Poti, Gori, Rustavi, Khashuri and Zugdidi. Some 100,000 protesters gathered outside the parliament building in capital Tbilisi. Police dispersed the protests by using tear gas and water cannons and made a number of arrests.
The mass protests have been hailed by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili who pledged to stay on as president after her term expires in December, stating that the government cannot appoint her successor as the parliamentary election held in October was illegal. “I will remain as your president, there is no legitimate parliament, therefore an illegitimate parliament cannot elect the president”, Zourabichvili said.
It should be noted that that ambassador to France and Principality of Monaco Gotcha Javakhishvili was first to resign over the government’s growing anti-EU policies. Javakhishvili rendered his resignation in May following the introduction of Russian-style “foreign agents bill” that requires any organization receiving over twenty percent of their funding from abroad to register as a foreign agent.
Saturday also saw mounting criticism from EU politicians and institutions, which condemned the government for the suspension of EU accession talks as well as police crackdown on protesters.
