Pro-EU protests in Georgia were not peaceful, says foreign minister

In an exclusive interview with Euronews in Budapest, Georgia's new Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili justified the police crackdown on pro-European protesters by pointing to the actions of violent groups among the demonstrators who she alleged specifically targeted the police.

Botchorishvili emphasised that everyone has the right to protest, but that these protests must stay peaceful.

"Unfortunately, I have to say that we cannot really call this protest necessarily peaceful because the violent groups that were acting [did so] with fireworks and their target was police forces," the foreign minister said.

The pro-European mass protests were triggered when the ruling Georgian Dream party put Georgia's European Union integration process and its negotiations on hold until 2028.

Tbilisi formally applied for EU membership in March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The country was granted EU candidate status in December of the following year, to the delight of many Georgians who celebrated on the streets of Tbilisi.  

The process was stopped this summer by the European Council, after EU leaders expressed concerns regarding recent developments in Georgia, particularly its controversial foreign influence law, dubbed the "transparency law" by the Georgian government.

The law was criticised by EU critics and was compared to a similar law in Russia. Foreign Minister Botchorishvili rejected the notion that her government was turning away from the EU and tilting more towards Moscow.

The minister said the situation is not "black or white", and said, "If somebody wants to make an easy negative impression about somebody, it is easier to claim that somebody is pro-Russian or pro-Putin."

"Georgian Dream party has been in power for 12 years now. And in this period, nobody can find anything that this government has done in favour of Russia," Botchorishvili said.

She reiterated that Georgia has a clear policy on its support for Ukraine and emphasised that the government signed the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2014, which aimed to deepen its economic and political ties to the EU. Botchorishvili said that for the past ten years, Georgia has shown its "commitment" and "shared values" with its European partners.