Shukri Burchuladze: Paata expected riot police at Presidential Palace to switch sides

“Paata was expecting the riot police at the Presidential Palace to switch to their side,” Rustaveli Avenue movement’s leader and October 4 protest rally organiser, Paata Burchuladze’s son, Shukri Burchuladze, stated on TV Pirveli’s broadcast.

“Paata was saying publicly that high-ranking officials and ‘robocops’ [riot police] were making contact with the organisers and wanted to cross over to the people’s side, because they were exhausted by everything,” Shukri Burchuladze noted.

According to him, Paata Burchuladze never for a moment considered the possibility that violence would erupt at the protest.

“Paata was convinced that Ministry of Internal Affairs officers would cross over to the people’s side. This didn’t happen. Something worse happened instead: a fence secured between two concrete pillars with metal was shifted in an instant by five or ten young people. The fact is that the mass of people weren’t aggressively disposed, because a miracle occurred, and this fence collapsed through the efforts of several individuals, yet virtually no one entered inside, nor did they offer resistance to police officers or security personnel. Paata never for a moment considered the possibility that violence would erupt at the protest,” Shukri Burchuladze declared.