The country’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had detained 107 people in the capital, Tbilisi, overnight during a protest which saw demonstrators build barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue, and hurl fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and teargas to disperse them.
Georgia’s domestic intelligence agency, the State Security Service, said “specific political parties” were attempting to “overthrow the government by force”.
MORE PROTESTERS GATHER
Many thousands of protesters were gathering late on Saturday in Tbilisi, building barricades outside parliament amid a large presence of riot police, and local media reported protests in towns and cities throughout the country.
Hundreds of employees at Georgia’s foreign, defence, justice and education ministries, and at the central bank, have signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze EU accession talks.
Major businesses, including the London-listed banks TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia stated their support for EU accession, while Georgia’s most senior diplomats in Italy and the Netherlands resigned in protest on Saturday, local media reported.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a star of Georgia’s national soccer team, spoke out in favour of the protesters.
“My country hurts, my people hurt, it’s painful and emotional to watch the videos that are circulating, stop the violence and aggression! Georgia deserves Europe today more than ever!” Kvaratskhelia wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Standing outside the parliament building in the capital, where the flags of the EU and Georgia hang side by side, protester Tina Kupreishvili said she wanted Georgia to uphold its constitutional commitment to joining the EU.
