The Georgian Dream Party, the ruling Georgian party, withdrew on Wednesday (July 28) from the agreement that Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, promoted in April to end the country’s protracted political crisis.
The U.S. Embassy slammed the move, and Michelle reiterated that the agreement “has no choice.”
The head of the Georgia Dream, Irakli Kobashize, said on Wednesday that the agreement initiated by Michel “has fulfilled its mission” and accused the opposition parties, particularly the United National Movement (UNM), for failing to implement the agreement.
“The Georgian Dream Party’s unilateral decision to withdraw from the April 19 agreement made the United States deeply disturbed and angry. This document was formulated through six months of difficult but cooperative negotiations and provides a much-needed path forward for Georgia. The Georgian people and their democracy,” the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement on Thursday.
In April, after a long mediation effort, which was unusual for the chairman of the council, Michel announced that Georgia’s long-standing political crisis had been resolved.
In hindsight, his statement was too optimistic. When Michel visited Georgia on July 19, he spent half of his time on further mediation between Georgian political forces during the trilateral summit with the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus.
The Georgian Dream used to attribute the deadlock to their old enemy, led by former President Mikheil Saakashvili in exile in Ukraine. Western embassies bought this statement to a large extent, but new measures made it no longer feasible.
The first to respond was the Georgian civil society organization. They stated that Georgia’s dream decision to withdraw from the April 19 agreement constitutes “a direct rejection of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic route and the realization of peaceful development of the country through democratic reforms”.
Transparency International Georgia is one of 21 signatories to the statement, and wrote on Twitter:
After the U.S. reacted on Thursday, Michelle issued a statement “noting” the developments and emphasized that he believes that there is no alternative to this agreement, which, in his words, is the best way to advance the reform agenda To strengthen Georgia’s democratic system. .
Critics generally believe that whatever the root cause of Georgia’s internal division, it is beneficial to Putin’s Russia, who took advantage of the 2008 turmoil in Georgia to control 20% of the country’s territory.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
