Authorities in Georgia say they have arrested a British man who broke into parliament during protests against the Black Sea country’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.
The man identified himself as Daniel Travis from Liverpool in an interview aired by a pro-government television channel. “I’m just passing [through]. I want to go home,” he said.
Officials suggested the man was a “foreign instructor” who had been orchestrating violence aimed at toppling the government. They did not offer evidence for the claim. The Georgian government claimed on Monday that it was facing a foreign-funded revolution.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are in contact with the local authorities regarding the arrest of a British national in Tbilisi.”
A woman in Tbilisi, the capital, said Travis had introduced himself as an English teacher when he rented a flat from her recently. She said she doubted that he would have been capable of organising large-scale political unrest. His arrest came as protests intensified in cities across the country.
Makeshift barricades burst into flames as protesters created a protective wall of fire between themselves and riot police outside parliament during another night of unrest. The protests erupted last week after months of tensions in the Black Sea country when the government said it was shelving EU negotiations with Brussels until 2028. Critics say the move will take the former Soviet republic back into the Kremlin’s orbit more than thirty years since it gained independence from Moscow.
More than 200 people have been arrested, while dozens have been injured as police used water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas to try and disperse crowds. Some of the demonstrators have fought back with improvised weapons that shoot streams of fireworks at riot police. At least three police officers have been admitted to hospital, the interior ministry said.
“These are the most important days in modern Georgia’s history,” said Mikheil, a protester in Tbilisi. “We are not tired, we are not afraid. The people themselves are the leaders here. We don’t want to go with any politicians right now because this is not just a political situation, it’s about our existence.”
The protests are being driven in part by younger Georgians who were born after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and who see the issue of EU membership as non-negotiable. Tens of thousands of people have protested every night since the government announced on Thursday that it was freezing the EU talks. The epicentre of the demonstrations is the area around the vast Soviet-era parliament building. A busy street by day, it is transformed into a battleground after dark.
Defiant protesters are wearing gas masks or goggles to defend themselves from tear gas, as well as helmets to ward off truncheon blows. As icy water rained down on the crowd, young protesters danced in a circle, while a woman mocked riot police by pretending to wash her dark hair. Barricades have been built with overturned bins and benches, as well as tables and chairs.
“I am very scared, but at the same time I’m feeling very grateful to my [fellow] citizens because we are united, we are doing our best, we all have the same goals for our future”, said Ekaterine.
Videos have showed riot police kicking and beating protesters. Guram Rogava, a journalist for the Formula TV station, said police “left me for dead” after deliberately targeting him as he was covering the protests.
“They knew I was a journalist. They didn’t have identification numbers, their faces were covered with masks,” he said. “These people had a green light to do what they did to me.”
Aka Zarqua, another journalist, said he was surrounded by riot police who beat him up “until they got bored” and alleged that the police stole from him.
Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s pro-EU president, accused riot police of the “systematic beatings” of protesters. Zourabichvili, whose post is largely ceremonial, has been locked in a bitter stand-off with her government since last year. She alleged last month that the ruling Georgian Dream party had conspired with Moscow to rig parliamentary elections and turn Georgia into a “quasi-Russian” state.
She has also vowed not to stand down when her presidential term expires in December, unless the government agrees to hold a new vote. “The determination in the streets shows no signs of stopping!” Zourabichvili wrote on X on Monday.
Georgia was granted EU candidate status late last year, but Brussels suspended talks with Tbilisi over what it called democratic backsliding. The goal of future EU membership is enshrined in Georgia’s constitution and supported by about 80 per cent of the population.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Monday they were sanctioning 11 high-level Georgian officials over “human rights abuses” and called on the EU to follow suit.
The protests have echoes of the revolution in Ukraine in 2014 that ousted President Yanukovych after he backed out of a deal to take Ukraine closer to the EU following pressure from Russia.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the unrest had all the hallmarks of a western-backed revolution but promised not to intervene in the crisis. Russia has occupied one fifth of Georgia’s territory since it invaded in 2008.
A senior Russian senator has previously warned that Moscow could deploy forces to “stabilise” the situation, if Georgian Dream asked for assistance to quash protests. Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now a senior security official, has said Georgia is following Ukraine into a “dark abyss”.
The violence continued on Monday morning when suspected protesters were dragged out of cars by police and beaten, as morning commuters looked on in horror. Zurab Japaridze, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change opposition party, was arrested as he left the protest in Tbilisi.
Marika Mikiashvili, from the same party, said the police were deliberately seeking to “punish” protesters. “They sent us the message they we should fear for our lives,” she said, adding that the scare tactics had failed.
The opposition rallies are also an expression of discontent with Bidzina Ivanishvili, the shadowy billionaire who has largely ruled Georgia from behind the scenes since stepping down as prime minister in 2013. Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, has accused the opposition and the West of seeking to drag Georgia into the war in Ukraine, but has not provided evidence to support his claims. Protesters have burnt an effigy of him in front of parliament.
“Bidzina and his stooges should just f*** off and each and every of those sadists among the ‘Robocops’ should be held accountable,” said Dato Abzianidze, a well-known blogger, referring to riot police. “We don’t care about their political manoeuvring, off-ramps and tactical retreats, they should just go, and go as soon as possible.”
There were also large protests in Tbilisi this spring after the government introduced a law on media freedoms that critics said was inspired by similar repressive legislation in Russia. However, unlike in April and May, unrest has now spread to other towns and cities such as Batumi, on the Black Sea coast, and Kutaisi, in the west of the country. Demonstrators reportedly blocked the main roads surrounding the coastal city of Poti, cutting off access to Georgia’s largest port.
Georgia’s ambassadors to the United States, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania and the Netherlands have resigned in solidarity with protesters and more than 80 foreign ministry employees have signed an open letter criticising the decision to freeze EU talks. Hundreds of state employees, including judges and civil servants, have also spoken out, as have celebrities and sportspeople.
Georgian officials have accused the protesters of attacking police and damaging almost 50 offices inside parliament. They did not say how many people had entered the building or exactly how the damage was caused.
The government insists it is still open to eventually joining the EU at a later date, a claim that was greeted with scepticism by protesters. It has also dismissed a decision by President Biden’s outgoing administration to suspend a strategic partnership with Georgia. “Our priority is our relationship with Donald Trump,” said Irakli Kobakhidze, the prime minister.
