Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili yesterday faced down street protests and rejected opposition demands to resign over his record on democracy and last year’s disastrous war with Russia.
“It’s obvious the answer to this question is ‘No,’” the 41-year-old leader told a news conference when asked if he would give in to the opposition call. “It has always been ‘No,’ because that’s how it is under the Constitution.”
Around 60,000 protesters took to the streets of the capital on Thursday, threatening to mount perhaps the biggest challenge to Saakashvili’s rule since he was swept to power in the former Soviet republic’s 2003 Rose Revolution.
PHOTO: AFP
Dozens of men, drinking wine and warming their hands over a fire, blocked the capital’s main avenue in front of parliament through the night and into yesterday. Opposition leaders called on demonstrators to gather again in the afternoon.
Saakashvili, seen by some Georgians as brash and impulsive, has polarized opinion in the Caucasus country, a transit route for oil to the West.
But foreign diplomats question whether the opposition alliance can maintain unity and muster enough people to join promised daily protests to force him out. They warn tensions risk boiling over into unrest.
“I’ve been facing these ultimatums every other month during the last five years,” Saakashvili said, speaking in English. “Every independent poll clearly proves that people are longing for dialogue, for long-term stability.”
Georgia’s western backers are watching closely for any repeat of the crackdown in November 2007, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse peaceful mass demonstrations against Saakashvili. Western officials condemned the action.
The opposition accuses Saakashvili of stifling reforms promised with the Rose Revolution, monopolizing power and exerting pressure on the judiciary and media.
Defeat in a five-day war with Russia, when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault on breakaway South Ossetia and then recognized Georgia’s two rebel regions as independent, has emboldened critics who argue the president has made too many mistakes to remain in power until 2013.
Saakashvili urged the opposition to engage in dialogue, saying he was ready to discuss “all problems.”
Analysts say Saakashvili’s ruling United National Movement retains wide support, and the president’s position appears strong despite the defection of several top allies and repeated cabinet reshuffles.
Many Georgians appear frustrated with the political bickering and are sympathetic to government calls for stability.
“How long can we bear this for?” said Lia Licheli, 41, pointing at the protesters. “If they had brains they would go home. They are just fighting for positions. I can’t bear it.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS