No one will forget foreign failure to condemn 4 October coup attempt: Georgian Parliament Speaker strikes at EU over 2025 unrest

“4 October 2025 is the anniversary of the attack on the presidential palace. Foreign representatives both inside and outside the country should not expect the Georgian government to forget that no foreign official condemned the violent attempt to seize power on 4 October last year,” the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has declared.

Speaking during an appearance on GPB First Channel’s current affairs programme Discussion on Topical Issues, Papuashvili addressed the approaching anniversary of the 2025 attack on the presidential palace.

“In two weeks, 4 October will be upon us, the anniversary of the 2025 attack on the presidential palace,” Papuashvili said. “No foreign representative, either here or abroad, should think for a moment that the Georgian government will ever forget this or fail to remind them that, to this day, no one has condemned the attempt to seize power by force on 4 October; an attempt that was previously given reckless support by a spokesperson for the European Commission,” Papuashvili stressed.

Georgian Parliament Speaker claimed that around 7,000 Georgian citizens, emboldened by the European Commission’s stance, gathered on Freedom Square in Tbilisi with the intention of overthrowing the state, dragging the country back to the instability of the 1990s, and causing bloodshed.

“Calls were made to march directly and storm the presidential palace,” Papuashvili said. “Were it not for the swift response of our security services both before and during the assault, anyone who remembers the 1990s would have seen those dark years repeating themselves right before our eyes. A single gunshot could have sparked utter chaos, where no one would know who was targeting whom. That is precisely what occurred in the 1990s; that is what they were attempting, and that is what Brussels backed. They supported it through statements, and they supported it while the storming was actively underway.

Various Brussels representatives, including Rasa Juknevičienė and, regretfully, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, sat directly on Twitter with nothing better to do than fan the flames for these extremists, urging them on with messages of “Go on, Georgians, we are with you.”

They had Salome Zourabichvili lined up, whom EU ambassadors had been meeting with for the preceding year. She would set up her presidential standard, which she was doing unlawfully, and they held meetings and took photos. Through this, they attempted to legitimise her in the eyes of the Georgian public as their real president. This is where the recklessness of certain ambassadors and the malicious intentions of certain countries led us.

Now there are attempts to downplay 4 October, claiming nothing happened. Yes, by God’s grace, nothing catastrophic happened. But imagine if a single bullet had been fired; what devastation would have descended upon our nation? How quickly would those ambassadors have washed their hands of it, with some retiring and others moving to new postings? How quickly would foreign states have washed their hands of us, comforting us merely with humanitarian aid? Not to mention what such turmoil would have triggered across the region, or how our adversaries and other foreign powers would have exploited it,” Shalva Papuashvili said.

Papuashvili added that, despite what he described as shameful conduct, Georgia has yet to receive a single apology from Brussels.

The parliament speaker concluded by emphasising the weight of public discourse, noting that ‘words carry the greatest power, and those with harmful intentions towards Georgia fear the truth most of all.’