Nika Gvaramia: I am proud to have been part of Georgia’s best government, but there are things I am not proud of

“I believe I was part of the best government this country has had. I am proud of what we accomplished, but there are things I am not proud of,” Nika Gvaramia, leader of the Coalition for Change, said at Georgia’s Constitutional Court, where proceedings are underway on a lawsuit seeking to declare five political parties unconstitutional and ban them.

Gvaramia said that life does not always give everyone the opportunity to take part in historic events, adding that he considers it an honor to have participated in such processes.

“I am proud of my time in public service. As I have already told you, the plaintiff cited my own words to substantiate its claims about my membership in a unified organization or a violent system. I stand by those words, and I am proud of them. There is no need to seek additional evidence. Yes, I believe I was part of the best government this country has had. I am proud of what we accomplished, but there are things I am not proud of. Probably everyone who has worked in public service has things in their biography to be proud of and things they are not proud of,” Gvaramia said.

He said he was proud of voting in favor of the March 10, 2005, resolution that led to the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia.

“I am proud that I chaired the commission dealing with deportations from Russia, where testimony by a Georgian who had been harassed and subjected to inhumane treatment by Russians was overturned. That testimony subsequently became the basis for a lawsuit. I encountered this case at the Ministry of Justice when I became minister, and we initiated legal proceedings in Strasbourg.

Under my leadership, the parliamentary commission overturned those testimonies, and we won the case against Russia in Strasbourg. It was the first interstate lawsuit against Russia. Georgia also brought an interstate case before the European Court of Human Rights, and it ended successfully. Of course, I am proud of this. I believe it was a significant historic case,” he said.

Gvaramia added that, regardless of how difficult a historical process might be, taking part in it was an honor for him.

He also said he was proud to have played a role, potentially a decisive one, in preventing what he described as a Russian-backed coup in Georgia organized by businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.

“I am genuinely proud of helping prevent a coup, but I am not proud of some of the things that accompanied those events. For example, I am not proud of the publication of covert recordings, even though they had been obtained legally. I say this openly. I am also not proud of the developments at Imedi TV. I can tell you that with certainty,” Gvaramia said.

He noted that the decisions concerning Imedi TV fell within the authority of another body and were not his to make. Nevertheless, he said he believed he could have done more to prevent what happened.

“I was part of the government, and perhaps I could have done more to ensure that this did not happen. I am not proud of that, but I am proud of helping prevent the coup. This case, however, convinced me that something can be legally justified and lawful without necessarily being right or something that should be carried out. I am referring, for example, to covert recordings — or, more precisely, wiretapping — and information obtained with court authorization,” he said.

Speaking about his tenure as education minister, Gvaramia said he was proud of introducing unified master’s examinations, which were established during his time in office.

“When I say I am proud of specific achievements in my official positions, I mean the entire government of that time, including the government and the president, because such things do not happen through the decision of one person, whoever that person may be,” he said.

Gvaramia also highlighted student academic Olympiads, which were established during his tenure and, he said, produced very good results. He added that he was proud that his own child attended a public school while he was education minister.

He described the Georgian-language program introduced at universities for ethnic minorities as perhaps his greatest achievement, not only as education minister but in his life more broadly.

“The program was developed based on my own concept at the president’s request. One of the people who completed the program later became my journalist at Rustavi 2. His Georgian was so good that he could go live on air and speak fluently. That doubled my pride and happiness. I believe this was a very important contribution to the country,” Gvaramia said.

He also expressed pride in programs that enabled schoolchildren and students to study abroad. According to him, the initiative came from the president, and he served as co-chair of the relevant commission.

“Many schoolchildren went abroad. We sent children overseas to study, not to work in call centers. This government, incidentally, abolished that program,” he said.

At the same time, Gvaramia said he regretted failing to persuade the government to at least double the education budget. He said this failure was one of the reasons he considered leaving office.

“I did not resign as an act of protest. I left because I had failed to achieve a goal that I considered critically important,” he said.

Gvaramia also said he was proud that he left the post of education minister because his salary was insufficient to support his three children.

“I am genuinely proud of that, because many people in today’s government — perhaps all of them — would laugh at such a statement. People now enter government not merely to earn enough to support their children, but to register houses in the names of family members,” he said.

He further said he was proud that he had not left Georgia during the war, adding that neither he nor other members of the government had done so.

“I am proud that the disgraceful lies we read about this are lies. I am proud to have been part of a government that seriously considered switching to partisan warfare if Russian forces entered the country. I am saying this seriously,” Gvaramia said.