#protests in georgia

[marsprincess889]

Ok so I'm back to bringing you guys' attention to what's going on in my country.

I don't have the heart to tell it all in detail. In truth we're all so familiar with it that talking about it seems comical. But to keep you up to date, there have been massive protests in Tbilisi, Georgia since late November.

On 25th of October of this year, the Georgian Dream party falsifies yet another election and on the 26th of november elects themselves as the ruling party again, despite EU, most of the other nations and all the other parties recognizing the elections as illegitimate. Recently they chose their new president, who was basically the only option. The photo of the literal bulletin from the parliament leaked.

People demand another election, a fair one. Peaceful protests soon turned into police beating up the protestors, even teens and women. They're still using water cannons mixed with pepper spray, in December btw. You can look up the videos, even on here.

The main thing that is painful to me and my generation in all of this is the fact that this is a completely new, modern and different version of the same damn fight. Right now I'm thinking of young men and even women and others who were severely beaten up, about people struggling to make ends meet who have their loved ones in such situations, young people trying to build their future who see less and less hope every day in their homeland but are desparately trying to hold on to the last tiny bit of it, maybe even goimg to protests in that state. Today I heard two girls around my age talking. "We gotta get out of here right?..." "yeah... but who are we leaving it to?" "The country?..."

Being free and sovereign in your homeland should not be an uphill battle or a luxury.

We have been fighting against Russian influence for centuries. For those who don't know, even when the repression isn't obvious, they still attack bit by bit(killing or kidnapping our citizens near the occupated borders??????), often with an old and tried tactic: trying to erase our culture and history, and with it our spirit and identity. And with all the other horrors, this is a huge insult.

My heart sinks everytime I read a random comment on a map or other type of video saying "Georgia is not Europe", "but Georgia is Asia". Not that there's anything wrong with Asia, but those statements mean something different and much deeper than an average foreigner suspects. Georgia never ever was "not Europe" to me. This isn't even about joining EU immediately as much as it is about us voicing our own wishes, opinions and truth as the vast majority of our country.

One thing I want to say to people who are far away from this is this: please do not fall for propaganda. And by that I mean Russian propaganda. If you just try to keep it clean while posting about us or checking sources while reading about us and calling out misinformation, it is going to mean a lot.

I tried to not write about this cause let's be honest, what can I do here?

I hope this will do at least something.

I do have followers so, I'm also asking them🤍🤍🤍 even those who just know me from astrology. Please consider reading and reblogging. 🤍🤍

reblogging(esp with tags) is still support.

Edit, additional info that you should probably know: Georgian Dream is a pro-russian government, they just banned wearing masks and goggles(those protect you from pepper spray by the way). If you walk by the parliament in Tbilisi your eyes and skin will almost definitely start to "burn" and you'll most likely start coughing.

There have been phone numbers calling and cursing at/insulting/threatening citizens, even pre-teens, believe it or not. And since the government passed "the russian law" earlier this year, we are most likely being tracked😐

Here is my post from this spring, written in an angry and tired state.

[vladolak]

Flashing Lights Warning ⚠️

Heard about the protests in the country of Georgia and how the cops were using rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas and more

Then a dude (who I call Firework Man) pulled up with a firework minigun and it brought to mind some metal gear music

EDIT: Update, I have come to find out that the individual in the video was in fact Firework Woman 👍

[i-merani]

HELLO! MY COUNTRY IS DESCENDING INTO AUTHORITARIANISM! PLEASE READ!

I'm too angry to formulate how many lines the government has crossed and how dangerous the situation has gotten… please read, and know the truth.

[hufflpuffin]

As the police escalate violence, beat and attack students and professors, and conduct mass arrests, student protesters should know their rights.

Here is the link to the National Lawyer's Guild booklet for protesters.

If you plan on going out to support the protests, please take some time to read through this and know your rights.

[folklorespring]

Protests in Georgia (Sakartvelo) against Russian-style "Foreign Agents Law". International media doesn't pay enough attention to these brave people.

[furplewastaken]

I don't post like.... ever so I know shit about formatting, but I hope SOMEONE sees this.

Georgia - the country - is on the verge of a revolution. They went from a shitty government to a worse one recently in an election the EU has called "neither free nor fair" and is largely assumed to be rigged by Russia. After this statement they pulled out of the talks the previous government had started to JOIN the EU. They had actively hidden a part of the map during a TV news presentation recently that was areas that had been heavily influenced by Russia over the last few years.

It has gotten increasingly violent over the last few days. People were openly protesting the election well before it was finished because the interference was obvious to them, but since the election, riot police, water cannons, tear gas, and a complete lack of human decency has taken hold of the capital.

There are two journalists who have had their heads bashed, I honestly have no idea if they survived but they were badly injured. Over the last two weeks they have violently arrested well over 300 people - and that's a heavily conservative number because I REALLY DONT KNOW.

Last night alone, they arrested 107. The night before, my friend helped carry several people to ambulance. They have arrested so many people that they are transporting them to other cities to hold them because the jails in Tbilisi are full. Released earlier this week was 40 people who had been in jail for nearly a week, and were only Released because one man of the group went on a hungerstrike until they were released, he was in terrible shape but somehow walked out on his own.

I am hearing first hand about what is happening, but i know a tiny little country at the farthest end of Eastern Europe is not on many people's radar.

There is nothing that can be done from the outside but watch, keep eyes on the country because ANY AID sent in would have whoever received it as a spy, or a terrorist agent and they would be arrested and likely never see the light of day again.

The old regime wasn't amazing, but they weren't Authoritarians aiming to hand the country over to Russia.

Please be aware of them, watch them, be outside observers because they need it right now. People being aware of what they are doing is one of the only ways we can put pressure on them. So please talk about them. If share this to Twitter or bluesky or whatever social media people are using these days but I don't exist on them.

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A post shared by რადიო თავისუფლება (@tavisupleba)

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A post shared by რადიო თავისუფლება (@tavisupleba)

[brieftimetravelwhispers]

On 26th October and even before that, Georgian Dream patry decided to steal elections in Georgia. The ruling party decided to strip us from our constitutional right to vote anonymously, they decided to steal our future and steer us back towards USSR, our dark past that promises us dark future.

In the last two years GD party has introduced at least two new laws that were used in Russia in past to solidify Putin's regime. Namely Law against foreign influence, that christens every NGO that is financed from abroad as an agent of foreign influence; and law regarding protecting family values and minors that forbids LGBTQ+ 'propaganda', meaning that symbolism associated to it, as well as literature, art or any kind of public expression that somehow informs about or includes non traditional family values, sexual orientation or gender identity is banned. We can no longer read Oedipus King in university, Sappho, Gilgamesh and many more starting from December, sections from cultural anthropology will be banned as well, and it's simply matter of time before critical skills and knowledge will no longer be reachable. This is authoritarian regime, where everything happens on a whim of one oligarch, what he says is a law for lawmakers, his slaves and he himself is subordinate of russian regiment.

Today, just several minutes ago, 'Parliament' declared itself legitimate, even though members of opposition are rejecting their seats, even though the President doesn't acknowledge fairness of elections, even though constitution clearly says that parliament needs at least 2/3 of deputies to do so. If that is not enough, constitutional court currently is discussing legitimacy of all 150 deputies per the Presidents suit, that automatically pauses working of the new parliament according to the constitution.

Georgia needs desperately to be in spotlight right now. Foreign support is all we have, as court, church, police is corrupt. Police keeps breaking up peaceful demonstations, beating up and jailing protesters, court keeps postponing their hearings as they know that the President, only pro-western institute right now, will use her right to pardon them and she wont be able to do that after her term is up in following months.

We've had painful past, full of protests, bloodshed and fighting for our nations survival. That's what being neighbour to Russia means for us. We won't stop fighting for our future and independence, won't let our ancestors sacrifice to be wasted.

20% of Georgia is occupied by Russia. And even today, there are some people, some georgians who prefer occupants claws, false sense of 'security' to fighting for our freedom.

This is not all, there's lot more that's impossible to fit in one post, for example GDPs pre election promises were pretty alarming, their rhetoric is horrendous, words they use are plain manipulative and dehumanising. They have their own pro government media that is brainwashing people and destroying every critical thinking brain cell. I am angry, I am disappointed and tired and so are hundreds of thousands.

Some sources about the situation:

[lookninjas]

So if you go downthread on the linked tweet here, people are saying there were up to 300,000 people at one night of protests in Tbilisi:

That's wild. Rooting for them.

[bakobakobako]

This is my cousin, Mika. He got arrested last week by the “Georgian Dream” forces. He got arrested for innocently protesting as shown in this video. He is seen harmlessly standing and saying “we want fair elections” right before a storm of these masked forces attacked, beat, and arrested him.

They broke his nose, 2 of his ribs and he also got a concussion. He’s a father of 3 amazing kids, husband, super talented architect, coolest cousin and the sweetest soul.

I found out today that he even had some internal bleeding. While dealing with all of this, they also made him go to court and fined him about 2,000 lari.

The protests are still happening. Georgians deserve a better government than this.

[machineheraldcommune]

Firework cannon immediately made me think of Jinx. All of my feeds right now are

Arcane

Georgia

South Korea

[notvv0ltz]

Russian law, from Russian perspective

There's a post on r/Sakartvelo from a Russian person explaining how the foreign agents law worked in Russia. Mind you, the very same law is going to be applied to Georgia if it gets accepted, it's NOT just like American FARA as Kremlin propagandists say. Georgians already know how it's going to be, so it's mainly information for those from western countries (and I'm asking you to reblog this)

Post link:

Screenshots:

[gwydionmisha]

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A post shared by mariah parker 🚩 (@mariahforathens)

Short version, they are trying to get rid of cash bail for things protesters and the very poor are likely to be arrested for. It also makes bail funds not a things as they'll be limited to posting bail thrice a year. It's a way to clear out protesters and render the 1st Amendment mostly a dead letter.

If you live in Georgia, please make your voice heard now, lest you lose the ability in future.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Woman shooting fireworks at the police who had beaten up peaceful protestors in Tbilisi, Georgia. Welcome back, Jinx from Arcane.

[i-merani]

⚠️ Video contains police violence

Police in Tbilisi violently kicks already beaten protester who's laying on the ground

Georgian people are protesting illegitimate government and illegitimate ruling party Georgian Dream who are violating our democracy

The police violently beat up protesters, many people are currently in hospitals. The police also beat up journalists, many have their skulls fractured and faces broken.

Links for more information:

[sailorsally]

Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830 // Protest against russian law at Georgian Parliament, Tbilisi, April 30, 2024

[folklorespring]

Georgia (Sakartvelo) continues to protest foreign agent bill tonight 🇬🇪