The messenger logo

Press Scanner

Compiled by Keti Baramidze
Friday, April 30
Klimiashvili: we said that the term “restoring territorial integrity” is false

Kvela Siakhle writes that an alternative meeting of the Georgian Diaspora is planned for May 27 in Tbilisi, following the Assembly of the Georgian Diaspora in Saint Petersburg which the majority group in the Georgian Parliament described as an "anti-Georgian" project on April 23.

“The biggest Georgian Diaspora group is in Russia. We held this meeting in Saint Petersburg so as not to give people grounds to think that we were meeting the Russian authorities. It was a truly Georgian meeting with no political characteristics and hardly any politicians attended it. Instead the leaders of Georgian communities throughout Europe and eminent Russians and Georgians were present," says analyst Ramaz Klimiashvili.

"The aim of the Assembly was to inspire the Georgian Diaspora to resolve our most acute problems. Conversations with Russia, Ossetia and Abkhazia are inevitable if we actually want to improve the situation and resolve all the current problems. Diaspora representative groups were immediately formed for this purpose. The Georgian Government obstinately avoids holding conversations with them and justifies this reckless step with this unreasonable motto: "until its troops leave Georgia we won’t start a dialogue with Russia”. But how Saakashvili and his party are going to remove Russian troops from these territories without launching conversations with the Russian authorities is difficult to understand.

"The Assembly's final resolution pointed out that the term "restoring territorial integrity" is a false one. Our vital aim is to unite Georgia as a whole and, in the first place, retrieve Abkhazia and Ossetia," Klimiashvili says.



Alasania: what matters is what the public think

In an interview with 24 Saati leader of the Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasania has stated that it is not of any great importance what Saakashvili thinks of the Mayoral candidates as only public opinion matters and will determine everything.

Alasania also commented on the President’s statement that people should support those candidates who will do something useful for their country. "The main factor is what work experience the people coming into power have, and my people have perfectly good records. As for the Government, the truth is that it can’t keep the great majority of the promises it makes to people. A Government which allows itself to waste 43 million in the capital alone on its own caprices isn’t a people’s Government at all. We have all witnessed also how the President and his party are interfering in the election process.

"I stated yesterday, and repeat today, that Ugulava is a supporter of Saakashvili's and Merabishvili's interests, who fights against the people and opposes their right to make an independent choice,” concludes Alasania.