Alasania: Protest Momentum Increases
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 21 Apr.'09 / 22:05

Momentum of the ongoing protests will increase further and will not wane unless real changes take place in the country, Irakli Alasania said, while speaking in the Tbilisi-based Kavkasia TV’s program late on Tuesday evening.

When asked what would be the opposition’s reaction if the authorities offer holding of early parliamentary elections as a compromise, Alasania responded: “Today, in the situation wherein our and the society’s demands are totally ignored and violence is a response to our offer for a dialogue, naturally the demand for early presidential election is the only issue in the agenda.”

“But we are also saying that we are ready to listen to the President what he thinks the way out from this crisis might be,” he continued. “And this is a message which should have been appropriately assessed by the authorities, but it has been ignored by them.”

“We are not fighting against personalities; our goal is to change the current system… and if the authorities take real, tangible steps in this direction, we will only welcome these steps, because our major goal is to change the system and to create genuinely democratic institutions.”

“Of course any genuine offer for change of the system will be welcomed, but unfortunately the society does not see any sincerity in their calls for a dialogue… What we have been hearing from the authorities so far is nothing else but an imitation of dialogue,” he added.

Davit Bakradze, the parliamentary chairman, who met with a group of Georgian intelligentsia on April 21, said that the authorities were disposed towards democratic reforms and “the fact that radical opposition refuses to engage in a dialogue should not become an impediment to ongoing reforms in the country.”

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