Lelo’s Gegelia: Georgia has indeed become island of poverty and hopelessness, not peace

“There was a time when Georgia was the sole state in the region holding a strategic partnership with the United States; today, we are the only one left without one. There was a time when we were Germany’s closest ally; today, we are its weakest,” declared Grigol Gegelia, one of the leaders of the Lelo – Strong Georgia coalition.

According to Gegelia, “Georgia has indeed turned into an island, not one of peace, but of poverty and hopelessness.”

“While Georgian Dream wages attacks on the Federal Republic of Germany, Azerbaijan and Germany have signed a historic agreement establishing a new strategic partnership,” Gegelia stated.

“For the first time in history, Germany has formally designated Azerbaijan as a strategic partner while simultaneously deepening ties with Armenia. This signals an entirely fresh engagement by Europe’s leading power and largest economy in the South Caucasus.

Following the United States’ unprecedented focus on the South Caucasus, the German Chancellor has now declared that ‘the South Caucasus serves as a critically important link connecting Europe and Asia,’ explicitly reinforcing Germany’s strategic interest in the Middle Corridor. History records no precedent for such intense, simultaneous interest from both the US and Germany in the Middle Corridor. This represents an unrepeatable economic and geopolitical opportunity for Georgia.

A responsible government would have seized this moment immediately to advance Georgian national and strategic interests. It would have engaged Azerbaijan and Armenia to build the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, growing our economy and creating tens of thousands of new jobs. Yet where is Georgia in all this? Once again: nowhere!

There was a time when Georgia was the sole state in the region holding a strategic partnership with the United States; today, we are the only one left without one. There was a time when we were Germany’s closest ally; today, we are its weakest,” he added.

Gegelia went on to say that “a regime that deliberately derailed the paramount geopolitical project for peace and prosperity, the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, continues its propaganda bluster about peace and wealth.

“Yet Anaklia remains unbuilt, tens of thousands of potential jobs remain uncreated, and our nation’s security and economic strength remain unfulfilled. Meanwhile, the South Caucasus has taken historic strides towards real peace, but it has done so bypassing Georgia, because this Russian regime has dragged our country off the track of opportunity and into a quagmire of hopelessness.

While regime propaganda shamelessly touts transit capabilities and deceives the public with claims that ‘nothing can happen without Georgia’, facts and history are swiftly proving the exact opposite. Alternative transit routes bypassing Georgia are gaining strength by the day, evidenced by the fact that 40,000 tonnes of transit cargo have already entered Armenia from Azerbaijan.

The conclusion is inescapable: the Georgian Dream regime is an administration of incompetence, squandered opportunities, lost promise, and poverty. Everyone seeks peace and prosperity, but no one takes seriously a deceitful regime that merely manipulates those concepts while setting itself against the peace-loving democratic world, aligning with warmongering autocracies, destroying Georgia’s strategic partnerships, and labelling friends as foes and foes as friends. As a direct result of these policies, Georgia has indeed become an island—not of peace, but an island of poverty and hopelessness,” Grigol Gegelia concluded.