Kobakhidze: UNM ‘Treason' in August War Doesn't Justify Russian Occupation
'Russia has occupied 20 percent of our territories, this is one of our most important national challenges, and, accordingly, the peaceful restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity is our important national task,' Kobakhidze
told journalists
on August 11 at the memorial to the soldiers who died in the battle at Shindisi village of Gori municipality during the August War. 'Of course, no treason by Saakashvili and the [United] National Movement can justify or will ever justify the occupation that was carried out by the Russian Federation.'
Kobakhidze also repeated his claims that in 2008, UNM didn't 'represent' the Georgian state, since it had stayed in power through 'fraud.'
'The 2008 war was clearly started by Saakashvili's regime. He was a president who had remained in office through fraudulent means, and this traitor, this traitor who stayed in power through fraud, this foreign agent, in 2008 fulfilled his assignment and started the war,' GD leader said, arguing that UNM was 'externally installed in power in 2003' and that they from the beginning were 'foreign agents.'
Kobakhidze also commented on the similarly controversial remarks from the tense presidential campaign of 2018 by Salome Zurabishvili, then a GD-endorsed independent candidate who also pointed at Saakashvili's responsibility in starting the war in 2008. Georgian Dream leaders at the time
distanced themselves
from Zurabishvili's remarks.
GD Prime Minister recalled what he said was a closed-door meeting with Zurabishvili and her PR advisers in 2018, when Kobakhidze was the parliament speaker.
'One of the questions we asked Salome Zurabishvili,' he recounted, 'was what her response would be if asked about the start of the [August] war. She told us that she would say the truth – that the war was started by the Saakashvili regime.'
According to Kobakhidze, they advised her to take a 'softer approach,' since a political climate at the time would make it 'difficult for us to protect Salome Zurabishvili,' adding that the team warned her that an open statement blaming Saakashvili would dominate the entire election campaign, something they considered unwise. 'She promised us that she would make a different kind of statement,' he said. 'However, in the end she told the truth […] that Saakashvili's regime started the war.'
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