Mamuka Khazaradze presents new civic movement ‘Lelo’
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, September 13
Mamuka Khazaradze, founder of TBC Bank held a presentation of his civic movement "Lelo" on the Anaklia coast.
Lelo, the name selected for the movement, is a reference to the traditional Georgian team game Lelo Burti, which is similar to rugby and also means to score in the game.
According to Khazaradze, this is the place where the huge Anaklia Port project is to be implemented and where lots of jobs are to be created, which will be an opportunity for Georgia to regain its position: "The function in the neighborhood - the function in the region and the world.”
Khazaradze, who is involved in the construction of the Anaklia Deep-Sea Port, said that unification and advancement of Georgia will start from Anaklia,“ which is the gate between Europe and Asia.”
“Today, we are establishing a public movement which is to be oriented on teamwork, goal achievement, love, unity, as well as the victory of Georgia,” stated Khazaradze.
According to him, the country should contribute to the importance of roads, transport, and politics, Anaklia is the place from where the vector to the West should be consolidated.
“We are people who have been very successful in our business, creating jobs, paying taxes, but today we have gathered because of a completely different reality. Today, Georgia is particularly in need of the unity of people who have created success stories separately, in different fields, ” Khazaradze said.
According to him, Georgia has been circling for the last 30 years. During this time, the country has lost territories, cannot prosper economically, loses investments and loses its people. Mamuka Khazaradze says immigrants should return to Georgia.
"Why did we become so hopeless, why do we no longer have a sense of that we will break it all together and create an entirely new reality," he said.
According to Khazaradze, immigrants are feeding the country today, they are sending a huge amount of money. This is more than what foreign financial investments bring.
“If you look at the World Bank Survey on the Happiness Index, the top 5 places are our size countries, with our size territory and the number of people. Then what do we need? Why don't we have such a goal that our country be in the top five too… Because we have enormous potential for this and that potential is you and the people who emigrate, “Khazaradze said.
According to him, the movement will soon become a political party - a party of leaders: “This will not be a party of Mamuka Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze or any other name. This will be a horizontal structure, assembled coherently, with a particular goal, oriented on the result", - said Khazaradze.
He did not name who will be the members of the party, however, he noted that new faces will appear in it.
Georgian businessman says he is not going to cooperate with any political party for the elections, adding that at this stage the organization is determined to participate independently in the 2020 elections, while after it enters the parliament, it will act for the benefit of the country.
"We are establishing a force focused on winning the elections in 2020, we declare this very seriously. We will not cooperate with anyone. We will participate in the elections independently, without prominent politicians… When we enter the parliament, we will decide what will be important for our country, for our statehood,” he noted.
According to Khazaradze, he understands that there should be no specific dates and goals set in politics as people come after power: "We will do the opposite, we will name specific dates and specific goals so that this country will either get out of there very quickly or we will be in this swamp. It is a mental swamp."
Khazaradze stated that they will find 12 leaders in every field and the process has begun: "12 reformers in medicine, 12 reformers in education. 12 men round the table, 12 leaders in the village, 12 leaders - women and men in the district. After all, this country has to be saved by each of us, rather than by one man or Messiah.
“112 years ago Ilia Chavchavadze was killed on 12th. It's a coincidence that today is 12th as well, believe me. We didn't choose this day because of that, but this coincidence is another indication this morning. Ilia Chavchavadze was looking for 12 people – engineers, to save the country. I want everyone to start this search and bring together the talented people around us to serve the country,” - Khazaradze said.
A couple of days ago Khazaradze stated that former head of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and former representative of the president to parliament Anna Natsvlishvili will be the spokesperson of the new movement.
Must be mentioned, that the Prosecutor's Office accuses the founders of the new movement of "money laundering". Prosecutor's Office charged Mamuka Khazaradze with another founder of TBC Bank Badri Japaridze on July 24, 2019.
According to the Prosecutor's Office's decision, charges were brought against them for their illegal grouping of USD 16 million, followed by the laundering of a particularly large amount of money. The date of this case goes back by 10 years but was only brought up this year.
Khazaradze, who founded leading Georgian commercial TBC Bank 27 years ago, says that he faces an ‘absurd’ charge because of his involvement in the Anaklia port project, and accuses the current Georgian government of creating obstacles for the ‘strategic project disliked by Russia.’ The Georgian Dream leadership strongly opposes the allegations, saying they have done their utmost to help the construction process.
"We can even say thank you to all the officials, politicians who created these problems for the attacks because I saw it and said that we would not go on like this," Khazaradze said in his speech yesterday at a public presentation in Anaklia.
"It just doesn't work for me anymore, that's for each of us. I don't want to be on the other side of the shore anymore, I don't want to be a businessman anymore, I want to be present now, and my experience, our experience, how to create jobs, how to create a perspective for people. Most importantly, create soil for the talented Georgians who are scattered All over the world, give them a chance to give back, "Khazaradze said.
Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of TBC Bank that has beheld the premises of Georgia, happens to be very successful business listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, disseminated information about the establishment of the public movement in July. He later specified in August that the public movement would be founded in September.
