Police in the former Soviet republic of on Saturday said they had arrested 107 people in the capital Tbilisi alone amid overnight protests.
The demonstrations, in response to the , were said to be the largest in recent weeks after the ruling Russia-friendly Georgian Dream party’s disputed win in October’s parliamentary elections.
Why did the arrests take place?
Thousands of protesters gathered in the capital, Tbilisi, on Friday evening. On Thursday, the country’s outgoing president, Salome Zourabichvili, joined protesters, and accused the government of declaring “war” on its own people in cracking down on demonstrations.
However, Georgia’s Interior Ministry has said the protests had “exceeded the norms set by the law for assemblies and rallies.”
The ministry claimed the demonstrators had thrown stones at police officers, built barricades, and burned objects. Police fired tear gas and water cannon at the protesters as they gathered in Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi’s main street.
The demonstrators built improvised barricades and defended themselves with fireworks.
Pro-EU rallies were also reported from Batumi, Sugdidi, and other cities across the country. It is believed that arrests were also made in Batumi, Georgia’s second-largest city.
Why are there demonstrations?
The ruling Georgian Dream party said on Thursday that the country would suspend talks on European Union accession until 2028. It also refused budgetary grants from Brussels — effectively halting its application to join the bloc for the next four years.
That move bolstered opposition to the Georgian Dream party remaining in power after the disputed election, with the opposition fearing that the country is turning away from Europe — and allowing Russia more influence in Georgia again.
‘s government and the EU have disagreed for months on several issues, but this intensified in the wake of disputed elections in late October. Brussels had already frozen Tbilisi’s application over newly passed laws on “foreign agents” and the curbing of LGBT rights.
Georgian Dream is in favor of normalizing relations with the Kremlin after a brief war with Russia in 2008 over control of separatist and South Ossetia.
Since the election, opponents of Georgian Dream have declared a boycott of parliament and President Zourabichvili has denounced last month’s election as fraudulent.
Zourabichvili, at the end of her six-year term as president, was originally an ally of the governing bloc but has since become a trenchant critic of Georgian Dream.
rc/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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