Author: Tamar Tordinava
“Before I leave the house, I write a lawyer’s number on my hand, I wear clothes that I won’t regret throwing away if I get gassed. I try not to take too many things with me — in case of chasing, a backpack is easy to grab and heavy. I also pick shoes that I can easy to run in and I text my parents,” says Elene, who spent many days and nights on Rustaveli Avenue near the parliament in 2023 and 2024.
She is a lawyer by profession and mainly defends the rights of women and queer people. In 2023, when the Georgian Dream first introduced the Russian law, there was a strong protest, and since then, standing at rallies has become her daily routine. She doesn’t count how many days she has been standing on the street or how many nights she has not slept. She believes that now she is where she should be and is fighting for the most important changes.
Vakho Kareli / Aprili Media
“Since spring, my priorities have been elections, demonstrations, standing at rallies, and participating in other activities related to democracy. My main job and my profession have become taking care of this country on a slightly larger scale than working in my specific profession.”
I’m going to stand here as long as I see people standing. I can’t imagine this sparkle ever going away. We all understand what’s important and what’s at stake.
Elene says that since the spring of 2023, she has completely “released” her anger, dressed warmly, and left the office and went outside.
“The hardest part is not coming out here and staying up all night, but leaving when you can’t [stay here] anymore. The second difficulty is making the decision at some point to miss a few days so you can be functional again.”
“Mom, don’t be afraid. If they raid us, I’ll run away and then come back” — this is the message that is usually used in communication with family members during the raid. From them, she also feels that their attitude and fear have changed.
“I know for sure that I’m not doing anything wrong and I want to resist with all my heart at that moment, because it’s absolutely illegitimate to raid at that moment, but because they have the right to use special means: gas, water cannon, I feel powerless and helpless. We always know that after the raid we’ll be back in a few minutes or a few hours. No one writes to me that maybe I won’t go today and so on — they know and understand that what we’re doing now is more important than the fear of a parent of a particular activist that something might happen to them. I think that this stage has somehow been passed, when only other people’s children have to make life difficult for this country to achieve something.”
The strongest wave of protests followed Irakli Kobakhidze’s November 28 statement, which said that Georgian Dream would suspend negotiations with the European Union by the end of 2028 and refuse any budget grants from the EU. This sparked a wave of mass protests in Tbilisi and the regions.
Women’s contribution to this protest is enormous, and the more time passes, the better we will be able to analyze it.
From the very beginning, “Dream” has been violently opposing peaceful demonstrations and has tried to repress the protests in various ways. The Ministry of Internal Affairs disproportionately and illegally used pepper spray, tear gas, and water cannons, including those with chemical admixtures, at the protests. Authoritative human rights organizations and the Public Defender speak about this. Law enforcement officers violently detained hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, against whom beatings, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment are of a systematic and large-scale nature. According to data from December 16 , 158 people visited by the Public Defender had visible injuries, mainly in the face. In addition, it is worth noting the violence and cruelty shown towards journalists, the deliberate damage to their equipment, kidnappings and interference in their professional activities by both the police forces and the so-called “titushki”. So far, no representative of the police forces has been punished.
Vakho Kareli / Aprili Media
Nevertheless, the protest has been going on continuously for a month now, on a daily basis. The main demand is new elections and the release of detainees. Elene is part of this protest and is fighting for Georgia’s European future.
“Being an activist in Georgia means making it your job, something you just have to think about all the time. It’s a process you’re constantly participating in. It’s about constantly receiving, giving, and discussing information about what’s happening in the country and what the solution might be.”
According to Elene, she is fighting to make what she has been waiting for since she was a student a reality. She explains that she means EU membership, which is currently under real threat.
“In fact, we are facing the reality that even I may not be able to spend my old age sweetly, like European pensioners. This has made me very angry. All other options, be it elections or the accompanying court proceedings, have been exhausted, and the only way left for us is to show the so-called government, with our strength, principle, and abundance, on the streets, that there are many of us who do not recognize them, do not give them legitimacy.”
It’s entirely possible that one day we’ll wake up in a country where we no longer have the right to do what we do now – peacefully protest and express our opinions.
As she tells us, she too has had disappointments when she thought nothing would change, but she says that now she is so angry that there is no room for nihilism. According to her, the persecution of activists on the streets, in transport, in entrances or in their homes is terror, and in this way the authorities are trying to intimidate them; they are trying to make activists feel unsafe even at home.
“But I think we were always like that — when violence happened, more and more of us took to the streets, because we understand that when you are afraid of the “government,” you should not stay home, but rather the opposite — it means that you should fight this “government” with all the legal methods we can,” says Elene.
She sees the ongoing large-scale processes as a last-ditch attempt to save the country and notes that government repression and legislative changes are slowly closing the spaces for freedom of expression. She says that some may think this is an exaggeration, but it is entirely possible that one day we will wake up in a country where we no longer have the right to do what we do now — “peacefully come out and express our opinions.”
This is a protest absolutely by people, that does not have one specific leader, neither a person nor a group.
“The government has been fighting against just critical thought in the country, against freedom, for a long time. They do not need and do not want a free society and democracy, they need a society that they can govern very easily, without problems, and take the country to the side they want. I think it is very clear to them today that this free will, despite numerous attempts over the past years, has somehow not been able to suppress it to the point where we do not speak out about it. They are fighting against everyone who can think critically and has the courage to express it.”
According to Elene, Georgian Dream is trying to maintain power by influencing the darkest sentiments of society, and part of this is patriarchy and the diminished role of women in society.