Georgian Parliament Speaker: Georgian Government will not forget that October 4 attempt to seize power was never condemned

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Tuesday that no foreign representative, either in Georgia or abroad, should assume that the Georgian Government would forget what he described as an attempt to violently seize power on October 4, 2025, including an attack on the Presidential Palace.

Speaking on Georgian Public Broadcaster’s programme Discussion on Topical Issues, Papuashvili said the Government would continue to remind foreign representatives that the attempted violent takeover had never been condemned.

“October 4 is approaching, in two weeks. It will be the anniversary of the attack on the Presidential Palace on October 4, 2025. Let no foreign representative, either here or abroad, think that the Georgian Government will ever forget this or fail to remind them that, to this day, no one has condemned the attempt to violently seize power that took place on October 4, an attempt that had previously been supported by the European Commission spokesperson through their reckless and irresponsible statements”, Papuashvili said.

According to Papuashvili, around 7,000 Georgian citizens, encouraged by what he described as the European Commission’s position, gathered at Freedom Square with the intention of overthrowing the Government, returning the country to the violence of the 1990s and causing bloodshed.

He said protesters had been called on to move directly toward and storm the Presidential Residence, arguing that the response of Georgia’s security services had prevented the situation from escalating into violence.

“A call was made for them to go directly and break into the Presidential Residence. Had it not been for the response of our security service both beforehand and during the assault, those who remember the 1990s would have seen the 1990s repeated before our very eyes”, Papuashvili said.

He claimed that even a single gunshot could have triggered uncontrollable violence and bloodshed.

“All it would have taken was one shot for no one to understand what was happening anymore - no mother would have been able to hold her child in her arms, and no one would have known who was against whom or what was happening. This is exactly what happened in the 1990s. This is exactly what they are doing, and Brussels supported it”, he said.

Papuashvili further alleged that Brussels had supported the events both through public statements and during the assault itself. He referred to several European officials, including Rasa Juknevičienė, as well as Moldovan President Maia Sandu, claiming that they had publicly encouraged the protesters.

“Various representatives of Brussels, Rasa Juknevičienė and others, including, unfortunately, Moldova’s President Sandu, were sitting on Twitter, as if they had nothing else to do except fan the flames for these extremists, telling them, ‘Come on, Georgians, we are with you’”, Papuashvili continued.

He also criticised the role of former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, claiming that she had been prepared to assume a central role in the events and that EU ambassadors had met with her regularly during the preceding year.

“They had Salome Zourabichvili ready. For a year beforehand, EU ambassadors had been meeting with her. Ms Zourabichvili would put up her presidential standard, which she was doing unlawfully, and they would hold meetings and take photographs. In other words, they were legitimising this in front of the Georgian people, saying, ‘This is actually your president’”, Papuashvili noted.

He argued that the actions of some foreign ambassadors had contributed to the situation, attributing them either to what he described as recklessness or malicious intent.

Papuashvili also rejected what he described as attempts to downplay the events of October 4 by claiming that nothing had happened.

“People are now trying to make a mockery of October 4 by saying that nothing happened. Yes, nothing happened, and thank God, truly nothing happened. But imagine if a single shot had been fired there - what would have happened and what kind of bloodshed would have unfolded in our country?” he said.

According to Papuashvili, such a scenario could also have prompted some foreign officials to distance themselves from the consequences, while other countries could have offered Georgia humanitarian assistance afterwards.

“I am not even talking about what this turmoil would have caused in the region, what it would have triggered from our enemies or from other countries in relation to Georgia, and so on”, he said.

Papuashvili said that, despite what he described as the seriousness of the events, Brussels had still not issued an apology for its conduct.

He added that words remained the most powerful tool and claimed that those pursuing what he described as harmful objectives toward Georgia feared such words the most.