Shevardnadze Urges Citizens not to Rally, Calls for Dialogue
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| Shevardnadze: “I will never share the fate of Milosevic.” |
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze reiterated today his readiness for holding a dialogue with the opposition and urged the Georgian citizens not to participate in the protest rally.
“I am ready for a dialogue and normal relations with the opposition. I am not afraid of meeting with anyone. It is quite possible to find a common language with opposition leaders. It is possible to talk with Zurab [Zhvania] and Nino [Burjanadze, the leaders of the opposition]. I am even ready to meet with their commander [referring to Mikheil Saakashvili, key opposition leader], although he insulted me last week. I am ready to meet anyone in order to avoid civil confrontation in the country,” Shevardnadze said at a specially convened news briefing on November 14.
He called on the population to refrain from joining the large-scale protest rally, which is scheduled in front of the Parliament for November 14.
“There will be nothing to see there [at a protest rally]. Simply we will witness the very bad beginning of what expects us. I believe we will settle all the problems together. Do not participate in the rally, everybody should do their businesses. Go home, return to the universities,” the President said while addressing the Georgian citizens.
He called on everybody to solve all the issues in accordance with the Constitution of Georgia. “If we turn from this way, we will be unable to avoid not only civil confrontation, but the civil war as well. Until I am the President, I will not permit the split of the population, that will trigger civil confrontation in the country,” Shevardnadze said.
Commenting on collection of signatures by the opposition, demanding his resignation, the President said that under such conditions his resignation would be “great irresponsibility” on his part.
“As soon as the new Parliament starts working, maybe I myself will sign the document on resignation. But now, it will be great irresponsibility,” Shevardnadze stated.
“I will never share the fate of [former Romanian President Nicolae] Ceausescu and [former Yugoslavian President Slobodan] Milosevic,” Eduard Shevardnadze said.
Late on 9 November, Shevardnadze met Saakashvili and other opposition leaders in his Krtsanisi residence, in Tbilisi, in a bid to defuse the crisis. But the talks ended inconclusively, with Saakashvili abruptly leaving the negotiations after he advised the Georgian leader to step down as Serbian President Milosevic did in 2000.
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| Saakashvili: Shevardnadze Must Resign |
Hopes for last-ditch talks to resolve political crises, triggered by the disputed November 2 parliamentary elections, faded away, as Mikheil Saakashvili said, “all the possibilities for talks with Shevardnadze have been exhausted.”
“The only way to get the country out of the crisis is Shevardnadze’s resignation. I call every citizen of this country for coming on November 14 in front of the parliament building to demand Shevardnadze’s resignation,” Mikheil Saakashvili said in televised address, which he delivered both in Georgian and Russian languages.
He said in order to survive in the current political crisis Eduard Shevardnadze “is ready even to provoke ethnic conflicts in Georgia.”
“Do not believe when some say that Shevardnadze will never resign. It is not true. Even much more powerful Presidents stepped down in several eastern European countries when thousands of citizens went into streets,” Saakashvili said addressing Georgian citizens.
Earlier on November 13 Saakashvili said, while addressing several thousand protesters in front of the Parliament, he does “not intend to meet with President Shevardnadze any more.”
“We understand that we should suspend any talks with the authorities and the President. I am not going to meet Shevardnadze until he resigns. We demand Shevardnadze’s unconditional resignation,” Saakashvili said.
He said the negotiations “with Shevardnadze has no sense, especially after Shevardnadze met with Aslan Abashidze [head of Adjara Autonomous Republic].”
“He [Shevardnadze] promised Aslan Abashidze and his Revival Union [party, which is on the second place in the November 2 parliamentary election results] to give best seats in the government, and the parliament. We will not admit the establishment of Abashidze’s regime in Tbilisi,” Saakashvili said.
Saakashvili also said this demand has been agreed with other opposition leaders – Nino Burjanadze, the Parliamentary Chairperson and Zurab Zhvania.