With unfulfilled and broken promises, the week of Nov. 25 caused ruckus. Throughout the week, violent protests have broken out to protest the government’s decision of suspending associations with European Unions. More than 300 protesters were arrested and more than 100 people sustained injuries in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Tensions started to arise when Georgia’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced his decision of suspending accession talks with European Unions. What does this mean exactly? This helps countries establish international laws through a European commission. Enlargement happens when a new country joins the union. According to the European Union, “The enlargement of the EU has contributed significantly to the spread of stability, peace and prosperity across the continent.” It poses for more freedom, more government funding, better economics, and more political fairness. This allows smaller countries included in this union for their voices to be heard along with promoting democracy and natural human rights.
With live news broadcasts showing the destruction, there is an increasing number of Georgians joining the protests in hopes to overturn the government’s decision. According to ABC News, “Georgian journalist Guram Rogava was doing a live broadcast from a protest when a riot policeman rushed up to him and hit him in the head on Friday. Rogava suffered fractured facial bones in the assault.” This caused major problems with some in major fear of police brutality.
Some protesters were being violated and dragged across sidewalks to be put in handcuffs. One activist was shot in the head by a tear gas capsule and went into a coma for several days. There have been several reports of Georgian police officers threatening activists with no hesitation. According to ABC News, “Lazare Maghlakelidze, a 20-year-old student who joined the protests, said policemen who detained him at the protest early on Monday threatened to rape him and then hit him over the head several times.” For Maghlakelidze, this just sparked more motivation to continue protesting. He stated how the country’s media made sure to not post police brutality due to censorship. Some claim this is an abuse of governmental power. As some news sources have contacted the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, they have still yet to respond to the commotion.
In hopes to deescalate the protesting, the Georgia government has been trying to censor media outlets throughout the country. However, this is proving to backfire on them with millions of people from around the world, mainly Europeans, supporting Georgian activists’.
Since delaying the decision to join the Union, Georgians remain confused. Why does their leader not want peace with other nations? Due to Georgia’s constitution, joining the EU would be deemed unconstitutional despites many officials encouraging the country to become a part of it. Georgians have close relations with Europeans and support integration. These political decisions make Georgia seem like an ‘anti-democratic’ nation who does not support world peace.
A majority of Georgians made their descent into parliament to protest at the capital of Tbilisi. Some describe it as a standoff between the prime minister, along with government officials, and Georgians themself. This continues to create tensions between Georgia and other European nations.
The United States of America has suspended their involvement in the issue due to problems surrounding constitutional rights. The US Constitution demonstrates fundamental rights that every citizen is entitled to. The US does not want to be involved any further into countries that lean more towards a communist viewpoint.
From the looks of it, most Americans can see Georgia’s actions to reject joining the EU as almost unconstitutional. Even though the US has tried to help refute these anti-democratic ideas and keep world peace, it isn’t always possible for them to be involved with every world problem.
Even though the Communist Party was banned in Georgia in 1991 and is run by a representative democracy, some may disagree due to the refusal of joining the EU. As refusal to join the EU, the country’s government also refuses to join NATO allies, creating even more tension between citizens and government officials. Some believe that this is due to the continuous military conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
At first, Georgia was ecstatic to join NATO allies but later feared that Russia would target them. Conspiracy sparks as if Georgia would have joined NATO 15 years ago, then there would be no conflict or association with Russia; disregarding their war with each other in 2008.
As Georgia was one of the first early countries that was invaded by Russia, they hoped to not cause conflict by joining the European Union or NATO due to fear of triggering further war and chaos.
