PM: There is no such thing as peaceful overthrow; October 4 operation was flawless with crucial preventive measures

“Everything is secondary compared to one fundamental fact: the rally calling for a regime change was announced, and it had a name: the ‘overthrow rally’. The word ‘peaceful’ here is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a peaceful overthrow, just as there can be no peaceful murder or robbery. There cannot be a peaceful overthrow,” stated Irakli Kobakhidze, the Prime Minister of Georgia, in an interview with the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

According to him, around 7,000 supporters of the radical opposition gathered at the rally, and everything else is of lesser importance.

“What was announced was explicitly stated; they even revisited the Rose Revolution, and the storming of the building was also clearly pre-announced. Not only might some individuals not be well-versed in the Georgian language and fail to understand that a peaceful overthrow is impossible, but this was not even up for discussion. The storming of various buildings was announced in detail. They directly referenced, for example, the Rose Revolution, which involved storming the parliament building. It was no surprise to anyone that they intended to storm certain buildings and target the Presidential Palace.

Based on this information, all 7,000 supporters of the radical opposition who remained at the rally were aware of these plans. Everything else, such as who Khabeishvili received funding from or who was supporting him, is of secondary importance. We prefer not to dwell on such topics. Our primary concern was that we had maintained control of the situation right up to the end.

These individuals may have harboured fears, possibly due to corruption or other reasons, and may have been cheering Khabeishvili up. They might have been promised something. When I speak of preventive measures, I mean that we took steps in this direction, which allowed us to react swiftly on October 4. As you saw, not a single hair was out of place. The special operation carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on October 4 was executed perfectly — flawlessly, even. Preventive measures played a vital role in this,” the Prime Minister concluded.