MP Kirtskhalia: Saakashvili directly handed over Georgia’s territories to occupier

“The political situation of Saakashvili and his so-called party is very difficult, and we have been seeing this for many years,” parliamentary majority leader Irakli Kirtzkhalia said.

Kirtzkhalia commented on statements made by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili during today’s court hearing.

According to Kirtzkhalia, Saakashvili’s actions demonstrate what he described as a destructive agenda even while in opposition. He said Saakashvili had not changed his nature and was once again threatening revenge and bloodshed.

“We should pay attention to their face and what they represent even after all these years. Threats, murder, bloodshed, oppression, destroying lives and destroying businesses — this is their face, as we have said. Of course, the leader and spiritual father of the collective UNM, Mr. Saakashvili, cannot hide this. He could not hide it and carried all of this out while in government. Later, while in the so-called opposition, we saw what kind of destruction this agency serves and what kind of instructions they carry out,” Kirtzkhalia said.

He also criticized Saakashvili over his decision to give up Georgian citizenship in order to hold a position in another country and accused him of acting against Georgia’s interests.

“We are talking about a person, by name, who gave up the citizenship of his own country to take a position in a foreign country. We are talking about a person who sang a Ukrainian, foreign national anthem precisely and correctly, but cannot sing the Georgian national anthem. This is not new either — even during his presidency, he made mistakes while reciting many poems or quotations, because he is not Georgian, and the most accurate description of him is a person without a homeland,” Kirtzkhalia said.

According to Kirtzkhalia, Saakashvili is once again threatening Georgian society with revenge and bloodshed. He also accused Saakashvili of having “handed over” Georgian territories to an occupying power.

“We see a person who has not changed his nature and is once again threatening our society with revenge and bloodshed — a person who directly handed over the territories of our country to the occupier. We all remember how, at the time, this shameless person came out and said about Samachablo that it was supposedly just several villages and a pile of stones. Today he tells us that supposedly only several villages were involved,” Kirtzkhalia said.

He further accused Saakashvili and his supporters of acting against Georgia’s interests and said they had continued what he described as a “Russian agenda” in international institutions.

“They were anti-Russian only in rhetoric; everywhere else, they did Russian business. They continued this betrayal in the Council of Europe. They did Russian business there too. They signed a resolution and agreed with the Tagliavini report, which directly placed blame on Georgian soldiers, those heroes,” Kirtzkhalia said.

Kirtzkhalia also criticized Saakashvili and his supporters over their position on Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region.

“Whenever any step is taken or there is any positive signal toward our brothers and sisters in Abkhazia or Samachablo, these are the people who come out and once again spread the language of hatred and sow hostility. These are the people who blindly served and continue to serve the enemies of our country, once wrapped in the mantle of democracy,” he said.

According to Kirtzkhalia, Saakashvili’s latest statements amounted to another threat against Georgia.

“The leader of these people is once again threatening our country from the courthouse and from the court hearing. Society knows this very well and, as many times as necessary, will give an appropriate response both to them and to their patrons — to them as people who hate the country, and to their patrons as those who want to turn our country into a proxy state and make it vulnerable so that it will then be easier, from their perspective, to control our country. They will never get that opportunity,” Kirtzkhalia said.

During today’s court hearing, Saakashvili said the current authorities often compare the Abkhazia war with the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

“This regime often compares the Abkhazia war with the 2008 war. The only thing they had in common was the unprecedented, unimaginable heroism of our people. In everything else, 2008 was completely the opposite,” Saakashvili said.

According to Saakashvili, “the truth is that Russia was very badly defeated in Georgia in 2008.”

“Russia did not come to conquer the three villages of Nikozi, Tamarasheni and Kodori; it came to destroy the state and kill me, but it was very badly defeated. It was precisely after the war that we embarked on the course of integration into the European Union,” Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili also addressed the Georgian Dream during his statement.

“I want to tell the Georgian Dream: I will destroy you; you are finished,” Saakashvili said.

He added that “the dictatorship will inevitably fall and this is an inevitable fact.”