Georgian protester Darejan Tskhvitaria, who spent almost a year living in a tent outside parliament, was taken by the police for questioning after a small fire started in one of the tents at night. When she returned, she discovered that all the tents placed there, flags, her personal belongings, clothes, and food had been removed.
Tskhvitaria started her daily protest against the ruling Georgian Dream party’s policies outside parliament in March 2025.
She told OC Media she woke up on Wednesday–Thursday night at around 02:00, when someone told her that there was a fire in the next tent, where two other protesters were camping.
The fire was put out soon, and police arrived at the scene. She grabbed her phone to call someone, but said the police took her phone from her immediately. When they gave it back, she found that all of her contacts had been deleted, and so was unable to contact anyone.
She said she spent over four hours at the police station, where she was assured that no one would touch her tent and her belongings. The following morning, she discovered that they had been removed.
However, Tskhvitaria says she plans to continue her protest regardless.
‘They will probably allow me to set up a tent again, I don’t know. But with or without [the tent], I am going to stay here. Last winter I didn’t have a tent, but I was spending nights here on the concrete. I will continue being here’, she told OC Media.
‘If it is my destiny to die here, I will die here, because I made a promise to my homeland, that I will stay here until the Georgian nation wins. I am not going anywhere.’
This was not the first incident Tskhvitaria had encountered during her year-long protest outside parliament. In February, strangers came to her tent and damaged her donation box, taking the small amount of money she had there. They swore at her and threatened her. Police eventually took them away but no investigation was launched.
‘I have never been afraid of my fight, I’ve always fought [for this country]. It doesn’t matter, even if the whole army comes here against me, I will continue my fight. No one can scare me. I was born once in this country and I will die here. I am not backing down’, she told OC Media at the time.
Tskhvitaria believes that the fire on Thursday morning was set deliberately so that the police could sweep the parliament clean of tents and protesters.
‘This was one of the reasons these tents were taken away from here, these tents were disturbing them’, she said.
OC Media has reached out to the Interior Ministry for comment.
The ministry published a statement that the investigation was launched for negligently starting a fire. It also said the area was cleared for security reasons.
‘All relevant investigative actions are being carried out on the incident, including the removal of the tent damaged by the fire during the inspection of the site. Also, for additional security purposes, the surrounding perimeter was cleared’.
Over the recent years, authorities have prevented various protesters from setting up tents on parliament grounds. In 2023 Georgian Dream adopted amendments prohibiting the use of tents and various protest equipment.
In 2024 protesters from the mining town of Chiatura went on a hunger strike for over 40 days against the company responsible for damages in their town, Georgian Manganese. When they arrived in Tbilisi to protest in front of parliament, police prevented them from setting up tents.
