Eduard Shevardnadze in his interview to the ZDF German television, the first one after his resignation, explained the moves he did just before the resignation, during the deadlocked political crisis in Georgia.
“I thought that the announcement of state of emergency and the anticipation of troops to come to deal with the crisis, would have dispersed the people, I thought they would have been scared; however there were too many of them [protesters]. It was absolutely impossible to disperse them without bloodshed,” Eduard Shevardnadze said.
“The bloodshed would have been a black page in our history. I could not permit this, especially on the eve of expiration of my presidential term,” he added.
“Democracy needs steering. It is not good too much of democracy. I think this was my mistake. Our people appeared to be absolutely unprepared for too much of democracy,” Eduard Shevardnadze said.
Shevardnadze reiterated once again that he remains in the country and dismissed speculations over his departure to Germany.
“I love Germany. But Georgia is my homeland,” Eduard Shevardnadze said.