Georgian Dream officials compare its critics to Soviet troops on 9 April massacre anniversary

On Wednesday, 36 years since Soviet troops massacred pro-independence protesters in Tbilisi on 9 April 1989, Georgian Dream leaders used the anniversary to attack domestic and foreign critics, drawing parallels between today’s anti-government demonstrators and the Soviet troops. The ruling party officials also notably avoided mentioning Russia in their commemorative statements.

Normally, anniversaries of the massacre are marked at the 9 April memorial in front of the Georgian Parliament on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue, where politicians — including government and ruling party representatives — join survivors of the massacre, family members of the victims, and other citizens.

This year’s anniversary, however, coincided with ongoing anti-government and pro-European protests, whose participants have repeatedly accused Georgian Dream of attempting to return the country under Russian influence via its anti-democratic policies.

On Tuesday night, the area surrounding the parliament — including the memorial — was occupied by family members of those detained during the ongoing protests. Other citizens joined them, creating a sit-in that remained there throughout the night and following day.

The organisers and participants of the protest stated that representatives of the current government, ‘with all their hypocritical ceremonies’, would not be allowed at the memorial. Against this backdrop, tensions periodically flared at the site, with verbal confrontations breaking out between protesters and certain members of the ruling party, as well as other individuals who showed up at the site.

Against this backdrop, senior officials from the ruling party did not visit the memorial, citing an effort to avoid ‘provocations’. Instead, they made harsh statements directed at the protesters — the statements followed a similar pattern: they avoided mentioning Russia or the Soviet Union as the perpetrators of the massacre, instead using the vague term ‘foreign power’. They also went on to draw parallels between Georgian Dream’s opponents and Soviet soldiers.

‘Today, 36 years after the 9 April tragedy, a foreign power is once again resorting to violence on Rustaveli Avenue’, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze wrote on social media, attacking participants of Wednesday’s rally at the parliament.

‘Even today, a foreign power is fueling hatred on Rustaveli Avenue, trying to artificially sow division among Georgians and fighting against the idea of freedom’, he added.

Instead of visiting the memorial, Kobakhidze went to Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral with other officials where he further lashed out at both domestic and foreign critics in remarks to pro-government TV reporters — describing European institutions as part of a so-called ‘deep state’ and likening them to the Soviet system.

‘Today, the deep state is acting in exactly the same way — now not through America [following the election of US President Donald Trump], but through European bureaucracy and European structures — as the Soviet KGB did 36 years ago against Georgia’s national interests’, he said.

Kobakhidze’s sentiment was echoed by other members of the ruling party, with Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili stating that ‘today on Rustaveli, [Soviet General Igor] Rodionov’s shovel-wielding soldiers have been replaced by those waving foreign flags, rootless individuals who are trying to hack away at the idea of Georgia’s independence with the same ruthlessness’.

As with Papuashvili and Kobakhidze, neither the Soviet Union nor Russia were mentioned in the statements given by disputed President Mikheil Kavelashvili and Defence Minister Irakli Chikovani.

Georgian Dream MP Nino Tsilosani also commented on the anniversary, mentioning ‘the people passed away on 9 April’, without referring to the Soviet Union or specifying what exactly happened on that day.

The statement by Georgia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Levan Davitashvili, was somewhat different, however. He did not attack Georgian Dream opponents, and mentioned that 9 April ‘united all generations in the fight against the Soviet system’.

Among those who criticised the rhetoric of government officials was Georgia’s fifth president Salome Zourabichvili.

‘Shame on you — the so-called government of Georgia: Those ruthless soldiers were “Russians”, not “foreign powers”, and you can’t even dare to say it’, she wrote on social media.

‘We are fighting the same power’

The gathering in front of parliament began on Tuesday evening. Family members of those detained, who had previously founded the public movement For the Freedom of Prisoners of Conscience, announced that they would hold a 24-hour protest at the location from 8–9 April.

They were joined by other citizens, some of whom arrived at Rustaveli Avenue through marches on Tuesday evening.

In the early morning, a memorial service was held for those killed 36 years ago, during which citizens left funeral wreaths, candles, and tulips, a symbol of the 9 April massacre. Those gathered also took an oath to protect the gains of those who perished on 9 April, to fight for Georgia’s freedom and to defend those detained during the ongoing protests.

Twenty-one people were killed and hundreds more injured on 9 April 1989, after Soviet troops moved in on a peaceful independence demonstration at what is now the Georgian parliament, beating people with shovels and releasing an unknown toxic gas in an effort to disperse the protesters.

Two years later, on 9 April 1991, the Supreme Council of the Georgian SSR announced the restoration of Georgia’s independence.

‘Thirty-six years ago, we were probably fighting the greatest tyrant in the world, and the Georgian people managed to overcome it’, Nana Makharadze, who was 19 at the time, said. Makharadze became a symbol of Georgia’s struggle for independence after an image of her holding a black flag the day after the 9 April massacre went viral.

‘Today, 36 years later, here we stand as Georgians, fighting exactly the same power. Let no one think that Georgians have lost our dignity or sense of freedom. We will stand here and win this battle. Georgia will always be a free and democratic country’, she told OC Media.

Similar protests were held in other cities of Georgia on Wednesday, including in Batumi and Zugdidi, where police forced protesters to leave the area surrounding the 9 April memorial due to a planned government event. As activists stated, one person was injured during the dispersal of the protest and was taken to hospital.

Throughout the day, flowers were brought to the memorial in Tbilisi by ambassadors and representatives from various countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Germany, the US, Sweden, and Latvia.

The anniversary of the massacre was also marked by the NATO and EU offices in Georgia, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the embassies of Ukraine, Estonia, Poland, France and Israel.

Several marches, including commemoration of Soviet-era massacre, are held in Tbilisi

Students, journalists among those participated in the marches.

OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia