“The individual providing testimony confirmed that Georgia narrowly averted conflict at least twice during Mikheil Saakashvili’s administration, before 2008. In August 2004 and again in 2006, we avoided military engagements, thus evading the August War. This was confirmed through official explanations from various individuals,” stated Tea Tsulukiani, the parliamentary investigation commission chairperson.

According to her, today’s session revealed that Saakashvili and his regime additionally lost Georgia 111 villages in the Tskhinvali region.

“We also heard today that around 400 villages were occupied in the 1990s in the Tskhinvali region, and as a result of the August war, Saakashvili and his regime additionally lost Georgia 111 villages in the Tskhinvali region. We hope this occupation is temporary, and these territories are not permanently lost. Today’s session results also suggest that many high-ranking officials who held positions at that time confirmed that Saakashvili’s regime, knowing in advance that military actions were beginning, did not notify the population in the Tskhinvali region.

They did not inform unprotected, unarmed individuals, the civil society, that they were facing a life-threatening situation. In reality, they abandoned the population, and many survived thanks to various personal initiatives – relatives calling them, informed people telling them ‘save yourself, run’ – and those who remained were either killed by Russian bombs or shot. We can now assume this might have been done intentionally, so Saakashvili would later have something to talk about – that they killed Georgia’s civilian population, which was indeed true. But we are talking about whether they could have avoided all of this from the beginning,” Tsulukiani said.

Additionally, Tsulukiani announced that former military officials Zaza Gogava, Mamuka Kurashvili, and Shalva Janashvili are summoned for questioning at tomorrow’s planned session.

“The regime our commission is studying either did not fight against Russia or fought in a way that would sacrifice its own soldiers, civilians, and state interests. Georgian Dream had to correct this mistake in the Hague Court, and the Strasbourg Court, and in providing effective assistance and care for the affected civilian population.

Today’s session revealed that this was a specific group led by Saakashvili, which some speakers called a ‘political elite’. The guys would lock themselves in under Saakashvili’s leadership and make the most critical decisions for the country without properly and effectively keeping even the Prime Minister informed.

We must also investigate whether Saakashvili and his associates – one of whom, Irakli Okruashvili, did not appear today – were acting under the pressure of someone or something. This could have been one state, two states, possibly not just one state or a group of states, or some other groups,” Tsulukiani said.