About 30,000 demonstrators marched across the Georgian capital to demand that authorities let a top independent television station back on the air.
Sunday's march was the first major opposition rally in Georgia since a violent dispersal of anti-government protests earlier this month, and took place as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili stepped down to start campaigning for an early presidential vote on Jan. 5.
Saakashvili, as required by law, handed over his powers to his close ally, parliamentary speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, according to presidential spokesman Vano Noniashvili. The parliament also voted 148-1 on Sunday to endorse Saakashvili's order to set the presidential vote for Jan. 5.
PHOTO: AFP
Tens of thousands marched across downtown Tbilisi and held a rally in front of parliament, urging authorities to let the station, Imedi, back on the air.
"If they don't listen to our demands, we will conduct permanent rallies," said protester Zviad Dzidziguri. "They will go on until Imedi is back on air."
Saakashvili called the election to defuse tensions after police violently dispersed opposition rallies on Nov. 7, injuring hundreds. The incident has raised doubts about the US-allied leader's commitment to democracy and drew strong criticism from the West.
"I'm sure that Jan. 5 will go down in Georgia's history as the beginning of a big move forward," Saakashvili said in a televised statement late on Saturday.
Saakashvili, who has sought to shed Russia's influence and integrate Georgia into the West, has defended the crackdown and a state of emergency he introduced as a necessary response to what he described as a coup attempt staged by Moscow. Russia angrily rejected the allegations.
The US-educated Saakashvili had won praise for his efforts to integrate the small Caucasus nation with the West. But he has faced growing discontent over the slow pace of reforms, persistent poverty and what critics call increasingly authoritarian policies.
On Nov. 7, when police clubbed and tear-gassed the opposition protesters, Saakashvili ordered the state of emergency that banned rallies and took independent news broadcasts off the air. The measure was lifted a week later, but Imedi has remained shut.
Authorities said Imedi, founded by tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, was being investigated over calls for the government's ouster. Patarkatsishvili, a Saakashvili critic, recently handed over control of Imedi to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Saakashvili defended the decision to take Imedi off the air, saying in a TV interview broadcast late on Sunday that Patarkatsishvili had "turned Imedi into a tool for destabilizing the situation in the country and ousting the government."
He dodged a question about when Imedi would be allowed to resume broadcasts, saying it could only happen after authorities receive guarantees that the station wouldn't be used by "certain political forces" to upset stability and overthrow the government.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS