July 8 (UPI) — The organizers of a Pride festival in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, had to cancel the event on Saturday as the police failed to protect them from right-wing activists who aimed to disrupt the gathering.
A large group of far-right demonstrators, including members of Alt-Info, gathered on a major street in Tbilisi, blocking the location where the Pride event was scheduled to take place. This interference was a result of a “pre-coordinated” effort agreed upon by Alt-Info and the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the organizers of Tbilisi Pride claimed.
The right-wing activists tore down festival decorations and clashed with the police, leading to several arrests during the confrontations.
Before the assault, right-wing activist Girogi Kardava declared, “All three roads leading to the area will be blocked. There will be no celebration today. The Georgian people will be the guarantors of this,” as reported by Civil.ge, a daily news website managed by the non-governmental organization UN Association of Georgia.
Instead of effectively intervening to stop the attackers, witnesses observed that the police chose to evacuate the organizers and advised the public to avoid the march due to security concerns, according to a report.
Tbilisi Pride stated that they had received “solid security guarantees” from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the security forces failed to fulfill their promises.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, in a press briefing following the event’s cancellation, expressed her disappointment with the authorities’ handling of the situation. She called upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs to fulfill their duty of preventing violent acts and enforce the law, as reported by Open Caucasus Media.
Zurab Makharadze, the leader of Alt-Info, hailed the actions as a “victory” during a rally held after the event’s cancellation outside the Georgian Parliament building. His sentiment was echoed by the founder of the Georgia Above All right-wing movement, who proclaimed, “The victory is sealed.”
