Memorandum

Memorandum


We have been for years using all our peaceful resources in order to protest the path taken by Georgian authorities away from the promises of Rose Revolution and against the dramatic tendency to push Georgia back towards practices and models of a past age and system.

And November 7th, 2007 proved us unfortunately right.

We have in due time warned our foreign friends about the dangers that an increasingly authoritarian government and its military populist rhetoric were creating for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, moving us towards military confrontation. We warned against the choice made during the January 2008 elections by the international community in favor of stability over democracy, when a well deserved second round of the presidential elections received no support; we were claiming that there couldnot be lasting Stability without Democracy.

And August 7th, 2008, proved us unfortunately right.

Despite having started a war, lost territories and caused tragedy, Saakashvili did not admit to be answerable. Even confronted by 114 days of peaceful demonstrations, he did not admit responsibility in the tragedy he failed to prevent.The call from his people was not enough to understand the necessity to restore by its own deeds and actions its legitimacy. The past 100 days since the visit of Vice president Biden, demonstrations have stopped and we have seen consolidation of the repressive apparatus, control over media and business, and fear has returned. The country is ruled but not governed.

The course taken by authorities that make a mockery of Democracy, of commitments and of pledges to the different organizations we are pretending to be aspiring to, is one that drags Georgia further and further away from the edification of a strong, democratic and European type state. All state institutions – Government, parliament, police, Army, judiciary- have progressively lost credibility and trust as has the government; and the ruling clanic elite is more and more intrincated in corruptive schemes designed to help it retain power at any cost. The country gets weaker and weaker.

Today, once more, Georgia is confronted to a very immediate threat that defies both its democracy and its stability, and may be its independence.


In order to compensate for the country’s weakness and for his lack of internal and international legitimacy, Saakashvili has embarked on a very dangerous path: stirring confrontation as a means to distract from internal failures and state collapse.

The official and publicly proclaimed policy of actively supporting the struggle of North Caucasian fighters is another adventure that might prove disastrous, both for Georgia and North Caucasus. For it amounts to provoking Russia on its own territory. The creation of a Russian language TV station “Caucasia” supposed to reach North Caucasian republics and preach resistance to Russsian oppression is as irresponsible as declarations made by Georgian authorities. This new “crusade” will allow Moscow to present any agression/repression as a legitimate self defense against terrorism. Accusations voiced in Moscow about Pankissi Valley and Georgian secret services fomenting Daghestani explosions are already pointing in that direction.

How Russia can exploit such a situation is only too clear. Why Georgian leaders are playing in their hand is not.

Such a policy from Georgia, can only serve those in Russia that are looking for a good occasion to start a new offensive. This new vicious circle, which might have a very high cost for North Caucasians and could threaten Georgia’s independence, causing serious regional instability, should be prevented NOW.

We are appealing to you and to your respective governments in order to adequately react to the irresponsible acts and words of a regime that is already in agony.

Only by promoting peace and not war can Georgia serve its friends in the northern Caucasus. Only a stable and democratic Georgia can help stabilize the region.



Salomé ZOURABICHVILI



“The Way of Georgia”

November 7, 2009