Georgia’s opposition groups have interpreted a German Embassy post commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall as a warning to the ruling Georgian Dream party. The German Embassy has denied the post’s relation to current events in Georgia.

‘Peaceful revolution is possible. The fall of the Berlin Wall is an example of this’, the Embassy wrote in a post on Facebook on 9 November. ‘For decades, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had its citizens locked in a system of oppression and violence. The citizens of the GDR, showing their courage and desire to determine their own destiny and live in freedom, achieved the demolition of the Berlin Wall’.

‘Freedom does not come by itself, we have to fight for it — it was then and it is today, here and around the world’, the statement continued.

While similar statements were issued by German Embassies in Brussels, Baku, Podgorica, Dhaka, Riga, and other capitals, some opposition figures in Georgia interpreted the post as a warning towards Georgian Dream.

Tina Bokuchava, a leader of the opposition group Unity — National Movement, told journalists on Saturday that ‘the fact that the German embassy is considering a peaceful revolution as a method of peaceful change of government among them should be a sign for [Georgian Dream founder Bidzina] Ivanishvili that his government is not eternal and that the main force was, is, and will be the people whom he stole the free will to decide their own future on 26 October’.

Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the opposition group Coalition for Change, also suggested that the embassy’s post could be alluding to the situation in Georgia.

‘Let’s say that this post was about the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, but everything has its time and a place and a leaf does not fall from a tree by accident’, Gvaramia claimed.

Members of the ruling party largely dismissed statements made by opposition figures.

Nino Tsilosani, the vice-speaker of parliament, told pro-government TV Imedi on Saturday that ‘probably, someone hacked the embassy’s website and wrote this truly unfriendly, non-objective, completely unrelated text just to discredit the German Embassy itself’.

Justice Minister Rati Bregadze also remarked on the embassy’s post, accusing the opposition of ‘ignorance of history’.

‘As far as I know, some of the oppositionists have already made statements, and I would like to remind them of the history of Europe and Germany, what 9 November is related to’, he said. 

‘In Germany, this means the fall of the German Wall. This is a historic day for them and therefore, when the embassy makes an announcement about it, naturally they celebrate their own historic day. The opposition, due to their ignorance of history, should not try to interpret the statement made by the embassy for their own purposes’.

The German Embassy later told TV Imedi that the post ‘refers to the fall of the Berlin Wall and any other interpretation is false’.

Germany’s Ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, also took to X on 9 November, stressing that the fall of the wall was ‘an event of global significance, symbolizing a historic turning point for Peace, Freedom, and Unity in Europe’.

#9Novembre1989 Fall of #BerlinWall was an event of global significance, symbolizing a historic turning point for Peace, Freedom & Unity in Europe. Then mayor of West-Berlin said: “We Germans are now the happiest people in the world.” That's all. #mauerfall35

— Peter Fischer (@Diplo_Peter) November 9, 2024