Georgian Foreign Minister, Mikheil Janelidze, spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, condemned coup attempt and reiterated support to the Turkish government.

“Mikheil Janelidze expressed concern about the overnight developments in Turkey and expressed hope that the situation will stabilize very soon and there will be no threat to the democratically elected government in Turkey,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on July 16.

“Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu thanked his Georgian counterpart for a phone call and for the support and noted that the situation now is under the Turkish government’s control,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

Restrictions, imposed for the Georgian citizens on crossing into Turkey, were still in place as of early Saturday afternoon, night after a coup attempt in neighboring Turkey and clashes in Ankara and Istanbul left more than 160 people dead.

Amid overnight coup attempt in Turkey, Georgian leadership gathered at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential palace in Tbilisi shortly after 3am local time on Saturday to discuss potential implications of developments in Turkey, which Tbilisi describes as its “strategic partner” and which is Georgia’s largest trading partner.

After the meeting, which lasted for over an hour, President Giorgi Margvelashvili and PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili condemned coup attempt in Turkey and expressed support to democratically elected government.

Georgia’s opposition UNM party has also expressed concern over the developments in Turkey and said that “peace, stability, and functioning of democratic institutions in our neighbor and strategic partner is of vital importance for Georgia.”