More Than 100 Arrested In Georgia Protests

Georgia’s interior ministry has said that 107 people were arrested during Friday’s protests in the capital, Tbilisi, sparked by the government’s decision to delay the former Soviet country’s bid to join the European Union.

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by demonstrations since Thursday, when the ruling Georgian Dream party – which claimed victory in last month’s election that observers said was fraudulent – announced it would suspend accession talks with the EU until 2028.

“Throughout the night, (protesters) confronted police verbally and physically,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. “Activists… threw various objects, stones, pyrotechnics, glass bottles, and iron objects in the direction of law enforcement officers,” it said, adding that 10 ministry employees had been injured.

Video showed thousands of people taking to the streets, waving Georgian and EU flags as they marched. Demonstrators were heard chanting “Russian slaves” at police officers guarding the parliament building.

Police fired water cannons and tear gas at protesters, while men wearing balaclavas were seen running into the crowds and beating individuals.

Salome Zourabichvili, the country’s pro-Western president whose powers are mostly ceremonial, claimed that the police “targeted journalists and political leaders.”

“It is Europe and the European ideal that these Russian proxies are deliberately and savagely crushing on the Tbilisi streets. Wake up, Europe!” she wrote on X Saturday.

“It’s evident in every way – no one is willing to accept a Russified Georgia, a Georgia deprived of its constitution, or a Georgia under an illegitimate government and parliament,” Zourabichvili wrote on X Friday. “That’s why so many of you are out here today – I see you.”

Georgian public broadcaster First Channel reported on Friday that protesters had set fire to wiring on the country’s parliament building and thrown objects at police officers. It also reported that police were firing water cannons at protesters, though they said the demonstrators regrouped each time a water cannon was fired.

Zourabichvili condemned what she called “brutal and disproportionate attacks on the Georgian people and media, reminiscent of Russian-style repression” at the protests.

“These actions will not be forgiven! Those responsible for the use of force should be held responsible,” she said.

CNN/Shakirat Sadiq