Shalva Papuashvili on foreign politicians: We see an attempt to show us the same movie we have seen many times before, to sow hatred, just like in the cases of Saakashvili, Melia, and Gvaramia - How can God not laugh when you try to remind us about the Vienna Convention?!

The statements we have heard from several ambassadors regarding Japaridze’s bail remind us of those slanderous campaigns that have not allowed Georgian society to develop peacefully for years – this is what the Speaker of Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, writes on social media.

According to him, some foreign politicians, bureaucrats, and diplomats should learn from Georgians what it means to be ashamed of a mistake and to apologize.

"The statements we have heard from several ambassadors regarding Japaridze’s bail remind us of those slanderous campaigns that have not allowed Georgian society to develop peacefully for years.

We all remember very well that:

For 7 years (2013-2019), they did not let us rest over the ‘Rustavi 2’ case, lecturing us on morality and accusing us of democratic backsliding.

For 3 years (2021-2023), they harassed us over the Melia case, even attempting another coup.

For 2 years (2022-2024), in Gvaramia’s case, officials of high rank and low competence were wailing, declaring the prosecutor who chased journalists as a persecuted journalist himself.

For 3 years (2021-2023), they were declaring Saakashvili to be on the verge of death, holding TV memorial services, paying for resolutions in the European Parliament, faking diagnoses, and carrying around his biomaterial in socks, almost orchestrating a civil apocalypse with the help of European ambassadors who authored false demarches.

And just two days ago, they even lost that case where they had declared carrying firewood at a rally (2019-2025) to be ‘freedom of expression.’

On all these cases, Strasbourg said that foreign governments, ministers, MPs, ambassadors, their secretaries and aides, absolutely all of them – yes, all of them – were lying, and Georgian justice was right. One can make a mistake once, twice, three times… but every time? It’s hard to be this incompetent every single time unless you’re a malicious actor with hostile intentions. You’re a party with a specific agenda, not only interfering in internal affairs but also organizing changes to the will of the government and the people. In this light, what Vienna Convention and non-interference in domestic affairs? How can God not laugh when you try to remind us of the Vienna Convention?

Do you remember any case where a Georgian ever interfered in someone else’s business like this? Ever showed such disrespect? Ever made a mistake and didn’t apologize?

What would happen if these foreign politicians, bureaucrats, or diplomats once acted with Georgian values and apologized? Because it’s clear that their notion of ‘European values’ in this regard lags behind the Georgian one. Maybe they could learn from us what it means to be ashamed of a mistake, to regret unfairly harming someone else, and to take responsibility for fixing what’s broken.

Instead of this, we see an attempt to show us the same movie we’ve seen many times before, to tell us that black is white, and to once again sow hatred and hostility in society, just like they did in the cases of Saakashvili, Melia, and Gvaramia. This farce comes from the same cinema. They don’t care. For them, these statements take five minutes to make and five seconds to forget. If anything gets damaged in the process, it’s the cohesion of Georgian society, its values, the path of democratic development, and national unity. I won’t even mention the desperate activists who keep hitting themselves in the head with the brick that was handed to them from abroad," writes Papuashvili.