“Regime Under the Siege of Protest” — or Resistance from Zugdidi

The Zugdidi protest turned out to be one of the most noisy and controversial. Demonstrations have been taking place in the city for more than 50 days. Zugdidi was the first to resist the law on masks and fireworks, which came into effect on December 30 – local activists boycotted the repressive laws and came to the rally in front of the Zugdidi regional administration with masks and fireworks.

Despite the fact that the police fined the activists, Mariam Sitchinava, Keren Esebua and Tsabunia Vartagava did not give up and continue their fight. In total, Mariam has accumulated six administrative fines, Keren has three, and Tsabunia has one. On January 13, Mariam was detained at the regional administration and on January 15, she was fined 5,000 GEL. On January 16, Keren and Mariam were detained – the court imposed a fine of 5,000 GEL on them

Aprili Media met with the activists in Zugdidi before their arrest and will introduce you to Mariam, Keren, and Tsabunia in the article. You will learn what role activism plays in their lives, what they do when they are not at protests, what they think about the current events, and how they plan to continue the struggle.


“I am Mariam Sitchinava, 28 years old, the head of the local organization “Droa”. Most of my activities are limited to Zugdidi and its villages. Whatever I do, I do with the idea that my 9-year-old daughter and her peers have a better future, the opportunity for a European education and to realize themselves in their own city,” — this is how Mariam Sitchinava introduces herself to Aprili Media.

Nata Uridia / Aprili Media

“I’m Keren Esebua. I’m an artist, that’s the easiest way to put it. I’ve been into activism lately, but I don’t really like that word. I’m just fighting to keep access to democratic institutions in this country. I’m glad I can talk about the Abkhazia issue as well. The two issues that are most important to me, and if I use activism for anything, are probably the Abkhazia and queer issues,” Keren Esebua tells us.

Aprili Media readers already know Keren. Beyond activism, she has a very diverse creative world. Musician, lyricist, performer — her niche in art is rebellion.

Nata Uridia / Aprili Media

“I am Tsabunia Vartagava, 33 years old, a social worker with 15 years of work experience and a civil activist. I am known as an LGBT activist because my activism in Samegrelo for years has been related to this topic,” Tsabunia tells us.

She is well known in Zugdidi (and not only) for her activist activities. For years, she has been at the forefront of the city’s development issues, working and voicing social problems. She is a co-founder of the club “Bzhaminoli”. When talking to us, she said that they had planned to open a DJ school, however, the current processes prevented this. She intends to implement this plan anyway.

Photo: Irakli Gamsakhurdia

The Beginning of Activism

Activism began differently for each of them, but all three were united by one thing – the desire to fight injustice.

“My activism in Zugdidi began after the Gavrilov news. When I came from Tbilisi to spend the summer, it turned out that there are a lot of challenges in the city. The locals are trying to deal with these challenges, but they are not succeeding. Because they have difficulty contacting the local authorities. Especially now,” says Mariam.

The local government is dumbfounded, blinded, and deaf. It seems as if they cannot see the problems around them, even the infrastructural ones.

Keren tells us that she was ambitious from a young age. Then and now, she often read political literature and wanted to be in politics. She also wanted to use her art to say something to the “separate and lonely.”

“However, since the spring of this year, I have realized that it was impossible not to join the ongoing process in this city. During my first speeches, I did not think that I would give a speech somewhere or get involved in some process from the inside. Gradually, it turned out that I had a lot to say. We can all voice all this in different ways, and we all use the existing platforms in different ways,” says Keren.

Nata Uridia / Aprili Media

Tsabunia began her activism before choosing social work as a profession. She says that the roots of her activism date back to her school days, when she tried to protect the rights of her classmates.

“However, I began my activism consciously on May 17, 2013. Older people will remember this day vividly — when the members of the rally on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia were dispersed with unheard-of cruelty. I was one of the participants. It was a turning point when I realized that something had to change. This is where my activism began.

“One day I decided that I didn’t want to stay in Tbilisi and had to go home. I could do more here than in Tbilisi. Then, I worked in the public service, at the National Probation Agency, in Zugdidi. Here too, I tried to inform everyone about women’s rights and domestic violence issues and I advocated.”

Photo: Irakli Gamsakhurdia

Despite various repressive policies and the specific difficulties of protest in the region, none of them have ever diminished local resistance. Tsabunia says that due to work, she has not been able to be as active at rallies lately, but this does not mean that she is afraid of anything.

Activism for Abkhazia

In addition to Zugdidi, Abkhazia is always present in Keren and Mariam’s everyday life. Keren actively covers the events taking place in Abkhazia on her Instagram page, and Mariam is involved in charity work. It is very important for them to remember the people who remained behind the occupation line.

“As for the Abkhazian issue, we have worked a lot on this issue in the region. Among other things, during the Covid period, we sent medicine, masks, and disinfectant solutions. We are constantly trying to communicate with the people stuck there. After the war, we sheltered several young people who fled from Abkhazia. When contacting Abkhazian youth, we discovered that several books that are still freely sold in our country are banned there. For example, the history of Georgia. We are trying to provide them with these textbooks. The textbooks that they themselves ask us for,” says Mariam.

She recalls that they had a campaign called “Teach English to Abkhazians.” They had 13 volunteer teachers who gave online lessons to children living in Abkhazia. She said that it worked very well.

Contact with those people who remained behind the Enguri is very important and they should be remembered constantly and we should also show that we remember them as part of us. Most of the time, when we made contact with these people, they were surprised and said, “Are we still remembered by anyone? We don’t believe that anyone still remembers us there.”

Differences between Regional and Tbilisi Protests

All three are familiar with the protests in the center, but they are even more familiar with the local resistance — a resistance they themselves are a part of every day. The Zugdidi activists talk about the differences between the demonstrations; what the police regime is like outside the center; what methods the authorities use against the protesters.

“The protest in Zugdidi is completely decentralized. We are not copying the Tbilisi protest. We are conducting the action as we consider necessary, as it will be better for the city. We are organizing actions tailored to the interests of the city. Often, the center has no idea about the concept of the region.

The approach of the police is also different, only in that they don’t hit or beat us. However, they have different methods. For example, some police officers write to little girls. There are people who follow us and watch us. Repression in the region is different and is felt differently. Your cousin may be a police officer who advises you not to go to the protest. We have had many cases when “well-meaning” police officers call acquaintances and tell them, “You don’t want to go to the rally, some provocation is planned there, why would you get involved in it? Whoever is standing there is standing for their money,” etc., says Mariam.

Keren explains that regional resistance is very important, and when protests are everywhere, “the whole country is boiling.”

I like to say that this regime is under siege of protests. The country is ready to destroy this system. Everyone is ready to make this phase of protest even stronger at any time, when it becomes necessary. There is a complete mobilization in the streets. While we are standing there, as if we are doing nothing and just talking to each other, we have achieved that they can no longer take this police on rotation. They can’t take the police out of the city either. They know that as soon as they leave these stairs that they are guarding, we will definitely go to the city council.

Tsabunia also says that activism in the region is more difficult and the pressure is much greater because the society is closer: “Everyone knows each other. A person has to take a lot of things into account before speaking out about something. Now that I look at it, quite a few of my Zugdidi acquaintances take part in rallies in Tbilisi, but when they are here, they never go out in Zugdidi. I understand them and I don’t judge them. When they are in a big city, there is more opportunity to speak out. You are more bold and the chance that the policeman will be your relative is greater here. If in Tbilisi the responsibility is distributed among many people, here relatively fewer people have to make an effort.”

Nata Uridia / Aprili Media

Gender Stereotypes in Activism

Stereotypes, which are unfortunately very diverse in our reality, are faced by women working in any field. Our respondents have also gone through this path.

“I’ve already fought everything. I don’t even notice my persecution based on gender. It’s unimaginable to me that someone would say to me, ‘Keren, you’re a woman and you should move.’ I’ve been through everything, the whole face of what it’s like to be a politically active young woman in a small town. I’ve been through all its ugliness,” Keren recalls.

Mariam also says that she has often been the target of cyberbullying, which most often occurs on the basis of gender.

“I personally went through all this a long time ago. Now I do not face these problems, because the person from whom I could potentially feel this threat knows not to approach me. The only thing that was said at these protests are phrases from the police, who believe that this is not sexual harassment. I must also mention the hate speech and misogyny that I encounter on social networks. We know very well how this troll-bot factory works. We know exactly who operates this factory in Zugdidi. They write dirty rumors and comments with hundreds of accounts. There is one name for all this – evil and the desire to break a person morally.”

Tsabunia says that attempts to ignore female activists, not listening to their opinions, and not taking them into account are one of the most common stereotypical approaches.

It’s even harder when they don’t see you. They don’t perceive you as a being with great power. This is even more insulting and harder to bear than physical pain. You don’t exist and what you’re talking about doesn’t exist either, because you’re a woman. There used to be more cases like this, but lately it seems like there aren’t any such approaches anymore.

Photo: Irakli Gamsakhurdia

Russian and Homophobic Laws

Tsabunia spoke to us about the malicious goals of the Russian law and explained that LGBTQIA+ activists had been waging this damaging discrediting campaign even before the law came into effect.

“I always tell those who now fight among me (some of whom were my very close friends before, many of whom I became friends with during the struggle against Russian law) that whatever pressure we are all going through now, LGBT activists went through this pressure earlier. We used the power of Russian law before Russian law was even written.”

“This law, of course, serves to gradually restrict people’s free speech, weaken us and turn us into Russia’s backyard. This was exactly the function of Russian law. Any organization that fights for human rights is funded from the West. No one can remember a single organization funded from Russia that protects human rights. This issue is not important to them,” she says.

She also adds that the offshore law is the same, which “turns us into Russia’s backyard,” turning us into a country for money laundering.

As for the homophobic law, Tsabunia says that the queer community is already either invisible, or if it is visible, it is under pressure and has to fight for basic rights, and the homophobic law will further aggravate this background.

Nata Uridia / Aprili Media

Although we have not heard direct cries against the Russian law recently, activists remember well where the large-scale demonstrations began. They do not forget the arrested comrades who are behind bars today precisely because of the protest against this law.

“We need to talk about the people who were illegally detained by the government from all platforms. People are facing illegal imprisonment. They sacrificed themselves so that there would be no Russian law in the country, or offshore, or anti-LGBT laws. They sacrificed themselves so that new elections could be called in this country. I express my great respect to them. Thank you for your sacrifice, because this was also done for me and my son,” says Mariam.

Keren notes that there is still a lot to fight for, but the most important thing now is that those illegally detained are released soon.

“The country is doomed, it has been sold piece by piece, and justice needs to be restored in many places — in Rioni, Shukruti, Balda. As for the captured citizens, the main thing for me is that the captives are released and returned to their families. The beginning of this struggle is the emergence of these people. Then come very long and high-quality political reforms.”

There will be no justice, there will be no peace. This country belongs to us and belongs to us on the terms we want.

Life Beyond Activism

In addition to fighting alongside their fellow citizens to preserve democratic institutions in the country and spending many resources on this, they have jobs, families, animals, and diverse interests.

“Beyond activism, I am a mother, a daughter, and a sister. I try to fulfill these duties that fall to me as a daughter, as a sister, and as a mother honestly before them. At the moment, my father, my son, and I live at home. I try to divide my attention equally between both of them. I take care of a lot of pets — 4 dogs and 5 cats. This is also a very large part of my duties outside of activism and outside of how people see me on the street,” says Mariam, adding that at the same time she loves to work in the kitchen and prepare delicious dishes.

Keren tells us that she loves to read and is trying to be disciplined in her writing.

“I’m trying to make music — I’m working on lyrics, on vocals. I’m trying really hard to maintain the line of my life where I’m a performer.”

Tsabunia is a practicing social worker. She currently works in the inpatient department of the Senaki Mental Health Center:

I go to work every day and after work I go to the protest. This is my daily routine.

 

“I live between Zugdidi and Senaki, in the village of Kheta. That is, I work in one municipality and go to rallies in another. I am the executive director of the organization “Civil Solidarity Fund”. Once upon a time, this organization was created to help Ukrainians — we collected money and bought generators for Pokrovsky, a city that is friendly with Zugdidi. However, recently we have completely surrendered to the protests of the Russian law.”

Protests continue in Zugdidi and many other cities. Our respondents believe it is important to pay more attention to the resistance in the regions and not to have the perception that people are only protesting against lawlessness in the center.