We wrote it, then SSG took it and they decided to release it to the public in the background of some scandalous music. Everything they say is written by us, they just spread it with their logo, this is the reality, this is how the director of the organization Canvas Georgia, Giorgi Meladze, responded to the statement issued by the SSG, according to which, Canvas is involved in the preparation of a revolutionary scenario. Meladze made the above statement in the PalitraNews TV program.
Meladze is interested if Serbian citizens were so dangerous, "why did they let them cross the border?"
"We are sure that this is part of the information line, the purpose of which is to discredit civil activism, to fence some space, to separate active people, to present them as criminals or potential criminals, and thus cast a shadow on various democratic, legal activities in this country. The main goal of our organization is to conduct civil activity, campaigns and establish a non-violent, strategic culture within the constitutional, legal framework. You mentioned the Serbs, but 2 hours ago, my Georgian colleague was also summoned to the SSG for interrogation. It is already clear to me that this is an attempt to create some paranoia.
Civic activism is as much a component and backbone of a democratic society as law, literacy, etc. An active citizen should know how to protect themselves. Some people don't know when to apply, to which institution, where, how to demand a response for their needs, this is part of civil activism. I think they see this as a threat, that is, they perceive education as a threat. As for the recordings, these lectures are available on YouTube," said Meladze.
Meladze also answered the question about the purpose of their lectures.
"Why I've been doing this for so long - first, I don't believe that there are angels in government who do things on their own. I believe that if a person is not active, not much will happen to them on their own, that is, s/he has to earn good things for themselves to a great extent, and I believe that non-violence is the best form of doing all this. For me, these three things are why I should do this work.
We don't teach how to organize a protest, we teach them to understand why s/he is dissatisfied or satisfied with something, to study the situation, to know the tools that will help them see all this, after that to decide whether s/he wants to participate in changing things, and if s/he decides that s/he wants to - how, what is the best form of this, so that neither s/he nor anyone around them gets hurt, so that everything is done peacefully and with more results, that's all, everything is open... We don't have an office, we have our website, where either the article, an event, or a statement is published," said Meladze.
According to him, if SSG does not make the interrogation report public, the Serbs will do it themselves.
"I communicated with them, they said that they really want the SSG to publish the interrogation reports and make everything more public, if they don't publish it, then the Serbs reserve the right to publish it themselves, even though someone asked them not to speak. If it was such a secret, why they let these people go, I don't understand, if they were doing something like that, if they were such dangerous people, why they let these people cross the border? They could have arrested them, right? Are foreigners not detained in our country? How come they don't detain them?" Meladze said.
He also responded to the circumstances indicated in the statement of the SSG, according to which the mentioned persons are connected with the revolutionary events that took place in Georgia in 2003.
"We wrote it and then they copied it. We said that we have been friends with these people for 20 years, in the "Rose Revolution" of 2003, when we were thinking about all this, these people shared their experiences with us, we wrote it, then SSG took it, and then, against the background of some scandalous music, they decided to present it to the public like this. Everything they say is written by us, they just spread it with their logo, this is the reality... They took the text translated by me as the title - "How to increase the protest drive", you can go to my page, it is open. They just make an accusation, we have been talking about non-violence for 20 years...
This is the Russian guidebook, that's exactly what the Russians have been talking about for years, that the "Rose Revolution", the "Orange Revolution", the "Arab Spring" are all threats. There is a danger for Putin, for Putin's clan. Why do they think we are comparing them? I have not seen any democratic government that is afraid of civil protest, on the contrary, democratic governments think about how to work with dissatisfied people to increase their level of satisfaction. They are really an extension of the Russian government," said Meladze.
For information, the State Security Service released information about the investigative action conducted against the organization "Canvas" and made public "part of the evidence".
According to SSG, on September 25, 2023, at the invitation of the East-West Management Institute of the USAID program, Serbian citizens Sinisa Sikman, Jelena Stoisic and Slobodan Jinovic arrived in Georgia. According to SSG, these persons are connected with the revolutionary events in Georgia in 2003, and in different years also had connections with similar process in Serbia, Ukraine and other states.
According to SSG, they were actively teaching methods of creating protest drives and tactics of conducting violent actions. As SSG says, they represent the management link of the "Canvas" organization, and also Sinisa Sikman and Slobodan Jinovic are former members of the "Otpor" organization, which was an analogue of the Georgian organization "Kmara" in Serbia.
According to the SSG, the declared reason for the arrival of the mentioned persons in Georgia was to conduct trainings for groups working in the field of culture in matters of "strategic non-violent fight", but the investigation established that this was not the only purpose of their arrival in Georgia. In particular, the real purpose of the visit was to establish communication and conduct trainings with those young people and influential non-governmental organizations, which should become the core of destructive and illegal actions planned in Georgia in October-December of this year.
The State Security Service announces that the conference held on September 26-29, funded by USAID, was organized by "Canvas-Georgia" and the East-West Management Institute. SSG publishes part of the evidence obtained as a result of the secret investigative action against Sinisa Sikman, Jelena Stojsic and Slobodan Djinovic.
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