Speaker: Those who justify attempted terrorist act on grounds of “just causes” today, with same logic, will justify murder tomorrow

“It would probably be impossible to present the essence of the terrorist act more obviously than the representatives of the radical opposition themselves were able to do,” wrote Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Facebook.

According to the Speaker, the concluding speech delivered in the courtroom by Aleko Elisashvili, one of the leaders of the Lelo-Strong Georgia coalition, was a typical example of terrorist thinking portraying fighting against injustice, oppression and adversary.

“It would probably be impossible to present the essence of the terrorist act more obviously than the representatives of the radical opposition themselves were able to do.

Since yesterday, we have been reading and hearing assessments regarding the political motives behind Elisashvili’s actions, assessments which, in fact, directly substantiate that we deal with terrorism.

When speaking about terrorism, we must understand that terrorists are not motiveless maniacs. Each of them seeks to find a ‘noble’ justification for their crimes, sometimes a fight for freedom, sometimes for justice, and so on.

Therefore, Elisashvili’s concluding speech was a typical example of terrorist thinking, portraying that he was fighting against injustice, oppression, and adversaries.

However, the goal declared by the perpetrator cannot justify a crime. On the contrary, justifying a violent act on political or ideological grounds is one of the characteristics of terrorism.

Several minutes after the announcement of the verdict, another circumstance became obvious: we do not deal with one particular terrorist act but see the group of individuals with terrorist thinking who, with their words, allegedly fight against the Soviet past but in action established themselves as committed followers of the main formula of Bolshevik terror, ‘goal justifies means.’

They arrived at this point logically and consistently. In just a few years, we have witnessed an evolution of evil. First, they justified verbal abuse and the violation of human dignity; then, they justified physical violence and harm to human health; subsequently, they justified the burning of the Parliament and the storming of the Presidential Palace—that is, attacks on the state and its constitutional institutions, undermining the state and its constitutional institutions. Now, they justify terrorism, the evil of humankind, and find political and moral justification for it.

When a person justifies each successive stage of violence, the boundary of moral acceptability becomes increasingly blurred. Therefore, society should acknowledge that those who today justify attempted terrorist acts on the grounds of ‘just causes’ will, tomorrow, with the same logic, justify murder. We have repeatedly witnessed representatives of this same political circle publicly rejoicing over the deaths of their opponents.

Thus, some willingly and some unwillingly, some consciously and some unconsciously, this entire cohorta was established a hostile fifth column, which finds a green light lit from outside to radicalism, extremism and terrorism,” Papuashvili said.

Aleko Elisashvili, one of the leaders of the Lelo-Strong Georgia coalition, was sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for an attempted terrorist act relating to a November 29 incident.