“They barged into the competition grounds, breaking tools, burning flags and placards, spilled our champagne, and taking stuff from the venue,” Mariam Kvaratskhelia, an LGBTQ activist who helped put collectively the occasion, stated in a telephone interview Sunday.
Police evacuated a number of dozen individuals who had been on the occasion, and nobody was injured, Kvaratskhelia stated. About 3,000 folks registered to attend the Delight occasion, however the mob confirmed up earlier than it opened, she stated. In a press release, organizers criticized regulation enforcement for failing to “use proportional pressure and measures towards the attackers,” including that police “compelled” attendees to go away the world on prearranged buses as an alternative of dispersing the mob.
Animosity towards sexual minorities stays widespread within the southeastern European nation, which has a robust Orthodox Christian affect. Critics have lengthy accused the ruling Georgian Dream social gathering — which opponents and a few Western diplomats have stated is main the nation away from the West — of tacitly supporting homophobic and nationalist teams.
Deputy Inside Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze advised reporters that regulation enforcement had issue policing an open house, and a few protesters managed to bypass cordons to enter the competition space, state-affiliated media stated. A number of of the counterprotesters had been arrested, in response to reviews.
Saturday’s competition was held on a personal, registration-only foundation. It was the second consecutive yr that organizers determined towards a public march in hopes of decreasing the chance of violent counterprotests.
President Salome Zourabichvili, an unbiased who’s important of the governing Georgian Dream social gathering, recommended that radical teams can be emboldened to disrupt occasions if police “act like they did right now.”
She accused Dream lawmakers of stirring up tensions towards LGBTQ activists forward of Delight and warned that by “inciting these counter-rallies and never condemning these actions or hate speech, the ruling social gathering, nearly all of the Parliament, helps violence and takes accountability for all the implications.”
The European Union’s delegation in Tbilisi stated in a press release that it was “disappointing to see that safety and freedom of meeting couldn’t be ensured” and that lawbreakers must be held accountable. The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi and different Western diplomatic missions additionally denounced the violent assault.
Georgia has utilized to hitch the European Union, however Brussels didn’t grant Tbilisi official candidate standing final yr, stating that it wished to see extra reforms carried out. Ukraine and Moldova got candidate standing at the moment.