The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Kobakhidze, addressed earnest young people with an open letter and highlighted the protests against the draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence.
GPB offers an open letter as delivered:
“Since the start of parliamentary hearings on a Draft Law on Transparency, protests have erupted in Tbilisi, drawing crowds of up to 10 000 participants. Television channels affiliated with the UNM highlight the predominantly youthful demographics of these protesters, underscoring their sincerity. The message conveyed is that the government is failing to heed the voices of earnest young citizens.
I will not talk much about the fact that a large number of young people who steadily participate in the actions are completely insincere young nationalists. These are the youth organizations of the UNM, Gvaramia-Melia, Gakharia and Khazaradze, which unite dozens of violent youth. Khazaradze finances the Gen Z movement, whose leader is significantly older than Gen Z. Violent youth organizations funded by Kezerashvili and foreign donors with black and opaque money – Sirshvilia [Shame], Franklin Club, Academy of the Future, Students for the European Future, Movement for Freedom, Jiuti [Stubborn], Talgha [Wave], Nabiji [Step], Tsertili [Fullstop], Dafion, which gather up to 200 activists regularly and, together with the direct party active, constitute the core of violent youth.
Among these insincere individuals, it’s important to recognize the presence of sincere young people who genuinely believe they’re contributing positively by participating in rallies. One such individual I’ve encountered frequently on Facebook posts is a sincere young man whom I’ve tried to understand. He’s likely between the ages of 25 to 27 now and has been actively supporting various revolutionary efforts since 2020, seldom skipping any opposition activities.
In 2020, he cast his vote for the UNM. On numerous occasions on Facebook, he emphasized that he doesn’t align with UNM ideologies, implying that he wouldn’t have supported a party with such leanings. However, his Facebook activity from 2020 clearly indicates his alignment with one of the factions within the UNM – either European Georgia or Lelo.
On the night of the elections, this young man was incensed upon hearing from the Mtavari Arkhi TV Channel that the Central Election Commission (CEC) had published the election results “late.” He was among the first to attend the rally organized by the UNM, which culminated in an attempt to breach the CEC premises. While he himself may not have directly participated in the attempt to breach the CEC, his presence at the rally served as tacit confirmation of the events that transpired.
This young man’s outrage intensified upon hearing accusations from the Mtavari Arkhi TV Channel and NGOs. However, after a few months, he discovered that both sources had lied, and the CEC had indeed published the results at the standard time. Despite this revelation, he didn’t consider posting a rebuttal to the media outlet and NGOs. This highlights a concerning aspect of his loyalty to the UNM – even falsehoods propagated by the UNM, NGO and the referred media outlet are regarded as sacrosanct by them.
This honest young man was outraged when the CEC results were mistakenly counted in the parallel vote of NGO. However, he didn’t express his indignation further when the NGO admitted, five weeks later, that it was a parallel counting that was mistaken for the results of the CEC, and not the other way around.
In summary, this sincere young man publicly denounced the election as fraudulent on Facebook and boldly labeled Tamar Zhvania as the world’s prime falsifier. However, in the following months, he didn’t issue any apology when Tamar Zhvania, the individual he dubbed as the “world’s main falsifier,” was appointed by the Americans to lead their primary election organization in another country.
In 2021, our honest young man fervently advocated for the government to sign the Charles Michel Agreement. However, he displayed no anger when both the UNM and European Georgia refrained from signing the agreement, failing even to meet with Charles Michel during his visit to Georgia. Instead, he seemed understanding when, after a 100-day period of fruitless waiting for the agreement to be signed, the Georgian Dream declared it null and void.
In summary, the initial revolutionary efforts of the sincere young man I know culminated in him voting for either Khazaradze or Gakharia in the local/municipal elections, a unit of the UNM. However, with the Georgian Dream securing 47 percent of the votes, the prospect of extraordinary parliamentary elections faded into obscurity.
From November 2021 to the end of February 2022, this young man’s Facebook activity solely revolved around Saakashvili’s hunger strike and subsequent release quest. Like many classical pseudo-middlers, he emphasized that the present moment wasn’t suitable for scrutinizing Saakashvili’s past; rather, the focus should be solely on saving his life. However, this sincere young man didn’t exhibit even the slightest sense of disappointment later when Saakashvili, two years later, decided that he was no longer willing to die and ceased his mocking hunger strike on principle.
Despite numerous past errors, the sincere young man once again placed firm trust in his analytical abilities when the war erupted in Ukraine. On the very first day of the conflict, he hailed Volodymyr Zelensky as the leader of the civilized world and a global hero. Today, he acknowledges that his analytical conclusions were significantly off the mark, yet he has never entertained the thought of admitting his mistake. His Facebook profile still proudly displays the slogan Glory to Ukraine along with a frame featuring the flags of the European Union and Ukraine, with no space reserved for the flag of Georgia.
In February 2022, the sincere young man was one of the first to go to the rallies and, first of all, demanded the imposition of sanctions on Russia. He instantly shared Lomjaria’s statement, I’d rather not impose sanctions, let the fire from the bombs burn us. If the economy of Georgia would fail under the conditions of sanctions, this young man would demand an answer not from himself, but from the government. UNM mindset is like this – sometimes he can’t think and sometimes he doesn’t.
Despite official approval from the Government of Georgia, this young man persisted in his request to send fighting volunteers to Ukraine. He remained resolute even in the face of discouragement from Biden and Johnson, who cautioned against volunteers joining the conflict to prevent NATO from becoming embroiled in a war with Russia. Furthermore, he expressed openness to war and shared Gigauri’s statement, advocating that Russia’s struggles in Ukraine presented an opportunity that must be seized.
This young man, who typically feels obligated to harbor resentment towards all things Russian, surprisingly displayed no anger when David Arakhamia, another “world hero,” addressed the crowd in Russian at the rally on Rustaveli Avenue. This observation suggests that his resentment isn’t directed solely at Russia, but rather inwardly towards himself. This sentiment is echoed by individuals like Rachveli, Nino Katamadze and other prominent nationalists who continued to hold concerts in Russia until 2019. These nationalists have convinced themselves that Russia’s status as an occupier of Georgian territories occurred not after the occupation of Georgian lands, but rather after the occupation of Ukrainian territories. This selective irritation with Russia demonstrates the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of the UNM mindset.
Our sincere young man was utterly perplexed when “world hero” Zelensky recalled the ambassador from Georgia on 1st March 2022, citing reasons such as the failure to impose sanctions and send fighters. His response to this demarche was, “I am ashamed to be Georgian.” Surprisingly, there was no inquiry into why Zelensky chose to recall the ambassador from Georgia, especially considering that he hadn’t recalled the ambassador from Belarus for over a year since the start of the war. Furthermore, there was no consideration given to whether these actions were linked to Podolyak and Danilov’s direct calls to open a second front in Georgia. It’s worth noting the absence of any protest from Podolyak and Danilov regarding these statements.
The analytical aspirations of the sincere young man reached their zenith when the issue of Georgia’s EU candidate status came to the forefront. He disseminated extensive information to the public, highlighting how adversaries of Georgia and those advocating for a second frontline were exploiting the candidate status issue for blackmail. He shared insights about the meeting in Bakuriani, where the collective national movement – comprising political parties, NGOs and TV stations – convened to strategize on orchestrating a revolution for the anticipated scenario of not being granted candidate status in June.
Our sincere young man was among the first to attend the rally when Georgia was not granted candidate status. He squarely placed the blame on the authorities without questioning why Georgia was overlooked while Moldova, a member of the CIS that abstained from imposing sanctions on Russia and struggled with corruption and weak state institutions, received the status. He didn’t raise any queries even when the European Commission released its evaluation with detailed points a few months later, revealing that Georgia outperformed candidate Moldova and candidate Bosnia by a significant margin.
The honest young man proceeded to share statements from UNM politicians, NGOs and journalists claiming that Georgia lost out on 14 billion Euros by not receiving candidate status and missed an opportunity for instant wealth. However, over the course of a year and a half, he didn’t exhibit any anger when these same individuals later conveyed that candidate status didn’t actually yield any financial or economic benefits.
In the interim, this honest young man shared numerous statements from nationalists of varying stripes asserting that Georgia would never attain candidate status under the current government. Surprisingly, even after the country did indeed receive candidate status under the Georgian Dream Administration, these posts remained undeleted. Furthermore, in December of last year, he didn’t attend the rally where the Government and EU ambassadors jointly celebrated the attainment of candidate status.
In a nutshell, despite numerous missteps, our earnest young man continues to stand firm at rallies today. He hasn’t familiarized himself with Georgian law, let alone the Russian one, yet he mistakenly believes that Georgian draft is akin to Russian law. He frequently shares videos featuring associate professors from Ilia University and NGOs who peddle misinformation, yet he neglects to fact-check their claims. For him, both an associate professor from Ilia University and an NGO are regarded as equal to God and infallible sources whose word requires no verification whatsoever.
In light of these circumstances, the pressing question arises: whom should the authorities heed – this sincere young man of average intelligence and his cohorts, or our fellow citizens of various ages who have accurately analyzed the events of the past three years and have refrained from succumbing to artificially engineered provocations? The latter group has contributed to upholding the strength and integrity of the state through their discernment and prudence.
A month ago, we conducted a fascinating study examining the correlation between voters’ intelligence levels and their support for the Georgian Dream party. After assessing the intelligence or IQ of the respondents, we categorized them into groups of high, medium and low intelligence. The research revealed that overall, Georgian Dream enjoyed support from 61.3 percent of voters in March. However, among voters with high intelligence, our support surged to 73.8 percent, whereas among those with average intelligence, it was only 45.6 percent.
In general, the most dangerous for the state is the dominance of people with average intelligence and knowledge, which is confirmed by the Dunning-Kruger theory. According to this theory, a person with average intelligence and knowledge has the highest degree of self-confidence. A person who has not read the law, but heard from an associate professor at Ilya University and from across the ocean that this law is Russian, has the strongest belief that the law he has not read is bad.
As for being earnest, it has value only when it is backed up by knowledge and intelligence. A self-confident person without knowledge and intelligence is worse than a Russian tank.
The case of 29-year-old Gigla Berbichashvili shooting 70-year-old Ilia Chavchavadze illustrates a disturbing phenomenon. Berbicashvili deeply believed that he was a progressive, sincere young man, while viewing Chavchavadze as a backward and dishonest old man. This skewed perception was indoctrinated into Berbicashvili and his like-minded peers through Bolshevik ideology. Similarly, pseudo-liberal ideologies employ similar methods, leading young individuals, directly or indirectly associated with the collective national movement, to believe that they epitomize sincerity and progressiveness in the country. Such ideologies often distort reality and breed dangerous misconceptions, blurring the lines between right and wrong.
Considering all these factors, I am strongly convinced that we should prioritize the voices of the 200 thousand young, middle-aged and elderly individuals who attended the Georgian Dream rally on April 29. We will heed the wishes of over 60 percent of Georgian voters who firmly and thoughtfully support transparency and, by extension, envision a peaceful future for Georgia. Their collective wisdom and discernment reflect the aspirations of the majority and will guide our actions accordingly.
I earnestly urge all sincere young individuals who may have veered off course to reflect critically on their past decisions, ensuring they avoid similar missteps in the future. Rest assured, the Georgian state is committed to supporting all sincere young people, even those currently misled and unaware of the challenges that the majority of Georgian society and its elected government have successfully navigated. I implore all earnest young people to recognize the paramount importance of advancing towards Europe with dignity, as entry into the European Union is contingent upon it. By 2030, Georgia will proudly attain membership in the European Union as an independent and sovereign state, upholding its dignity every step of the way.”
