Georgian Parliament Speaker accuses opposition figures of coordinated campaign to undermine Georgia’s territorial integrity

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Wednesday said remarks by imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that the path to restoring control over Abkhazia does not lie through reconciliation with Abkhazians are part of a coordinated campaign aimed at pushing Georgia to surrender its territories to Russia and abandon its commitment to territorial integrity.

In his remarks, Papuashvili said the campaign had developed gradually, pointing to statements by former government officials and opposition figures concerning Georgia’s conflicts in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region.

“This is a coordinated campaign aimed at making Georgia surrender its own territories to Russia and renounce its own territorial integrity. They are taking it from us drop by drop. Our country’s two main tasks are the well-being of our people and the reunification of our country. There is no other goal that stands above these”, he said.

The Speaker referred to statements by opposition leaders Giorgi Baramidze, Nika Gvaramia and Giorgi Bokeria, arguing that their remarks collectively reflect an attempt to portray the unresolved conflicts as a historical trauma that Georgia must overcome in order to move forward.

“Recently, we have been seeing a direct campaign directed against the territorial integrity of our country. It first started with Baramidze’s statement, in which he accused Georgia and Georgian soldiers of war crimes during the confrontation in the 1990s. Then came Gvaramia, who called it a historical trauma from which it is necessary to free ourselves and drew parallels with Armenia, saying that, in his assessment, just as Armenia freed itself from the trauma of Karabakh and prospects opened up for it, so we too should free ourselves from this trauma. This directly showed what vision they have regarding the integrity of the country. This is a continuation of the line that the National Movement has always had in general, including while in power”, Papuashvili said.

He interpreted Saakashvili’s rejection of reconciliation with Abkhazians as part of the same political narrative, arguing that abandoning reconciliation could ultimately weaken Georgia’s position on territorial integrity.

“When Saakashvili says that ‘the Abkhazians hate us and nothing will help this,’ that ‘the policy of reconciliation makes no sense’; Bokeria says that ‘the policy of reconciliation is futile’; and Gvaramia says that ‘this is a trauma and this trauma is blocking our development and we should get rid of it and look ahead’ - all of this shows that this is a coordinated campaign aimed at making Georgia surrender its own territories to Russia and renounce its own territorial integrity. They are taking it from us drop by drop, and they will add to this what Gvaramia is talking about with the parallels to Armenia - that in return, some prospects will open up”, he stressed.

Papuashvili argued that the narrative resembles arguments allegedly being presented to other countries facing territorial disputes, including Ukraine over territories occupied by Russia and Moldova over Transnistria.

“Let us recall that they are telling Ukraine the same thing - that it should make a compromise regarding its territories and that this will open up more prospects for development. They are telling Moldova the same thing regarding Transnistria, and now, as it seems, they have come to us. This must be given a firm response from the outset: there will be no compromise with the integrity of our country for the sake of any goal. Our country’s two main tasks are the well-being of our people and the reunification of our country. There is no other goal that stands above these. So we will not exchange the territorial integrity of our country for any other goal”, he concluded.