Georgian Dream and UNM supporters clash in western Georgia

An MP from the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party has said that she and members of the party were attacked by supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party in western Georgia.

MP Ana Tsitlidze claimed that she and her party’s supporters were harassed by a group of 50 Georgian Dream supporters on Thursday while distributing UNM leaflets in Zugdidi.

She said that the group that had harassed them were wearing T-shirts with Georgian Dream logos on them.

Hours later, RFE/RL reported that another altercation between the supporters of the two factions had taken place in Zugdidi, citing Tsitlidze as saying that the supporters of the UNM were attacked by nearly 100 people.

‘For the second time, about 100 people came. It was an attack. Two police crews were on the spot, but they could not do anything’, she said.

Tsitlidze said that she was physically attacked by Teona Kardava, who reportedly works at the Government of Abkhazia’s offices in Zugdidi. She accused Kardava of being an agent of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG). 

Footage from the clash shows Kardava repeatedly punching Tsitlidze before onlookers separate the two.

Kardava later said that she hit Tsitlidze in self-defence, accusing the UNM MP of instigating the fight, and denying that she was an SSG agent.

In a press briefing the following day, Tsitlidze called the group that attacked her and members of the UNM  ‘titushki’ — Ukrainian slang used to describe plainclothes security forces used to attack government critics. She showed photos purported to be of the attackers, claiming that they had been under the influence of narcotics.

On Friday, Georgian Dream’s candidate in Zugdidi Davit Kodua accused the UNM of instigating the violence the previous day, and claimed that their supporters were preventing the ruling party from carrying out their pre-election campaign.

‘We call on non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and observation missions to get involved in this process [and] to study the incident that happened yesterday’, he said, adding that the UNM should be ‘banned’ in Zugdidi, whose residents, he said, supported the government.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that it is investigating the incident as an act of violence.

Parliamentary elections in Georgia are scheduled for 26 October.