“We know what the purpose of this gathering is. They said it publicly themselves; it slipped out that the aim is to let their foreign superiors count heads, to show that they are present in sufficient numbers and are carrying out their orders,” stated the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, whilst speaking about the opposition-announced rally announced for May 26.

Papuashvili added that, on the other hand, “we can see who this group of people, of fellow citizens, are; those who are moving against Georgia’s historical path of development.”

“On the other hand, we know what this really means. We can already see plainly that a group of people has taken shape, citizens whom we also saw on October 4, who have turned their backs on Georgia’s fundamental values. These people, the ‘October 4 coup plotters’, can be seen wherever there is violence, hatred, and the surrender of Georgian and Georgian national interests in favour of the interests of others. These are people we did not see at the funeral of our Patriarch, at the enthronement of the new Patriarch, at the celebration of victory over fascism, or at the observance of the Day of Family Purity. In other words, there is a country, a society, its historical path, its development, its vision for the future, and then there is a group of people who feel at ease in the company of foreign ambassadors and foreign politicians, yet do not feel at ease in their own country, in its churches, in the regions, among their own people.

In this respect, this is a welcome process, because we can see, by face and by name, who this group of people, our fellow citizens, are, those who are working against Georgia’s historical development. Not only politicians, but some are doctors, some are lecturers, and so forth. They seek to align Georgia’s development with the interests of others to gain their approval. What they want is for a Member of the European Parliament to applaud them, for some ambassador to embrace them, to be invited to some European day event, to have their hand shaken and a photograph taken. That is the pinnacle of their personal achievement, not the development of their own country. For this reason, on the contrary, I welcome it being as clearly visible as possible where the Georgian people stand; the Georgian people will stand on May 26, marking their Independence Day, and where this group of marginals stands: waving someone else’s flag, singing someone else’s anthem, chanting in a foreign language, and already divesting themselves of everything Georgian,” declared Papuashvili.