Mikhail Saakashvili has offered opposition leaders to stand right next to him.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Saakashvili Marches into the New Term
// Georgia’s president stages a military parade on his inauguration day
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Sunday was sworn in for his second term in office and promised to make Georgia a prosperous and united country. Opposition leaders gave no credit to the promise and drew 100,000 people to rally at the Tbilisi racecourse to “stage the inauguration for their own candidate”, Levan Gachechiladze. Kommersant’s Olga Allenova and David Gamtsemlidze report from Tbilisi.
The Swear-In Ceremony
Workers were installing stands outside the Parliament building on Rustaveli street for President Saakashvili, his guests, the army orchestra and journalists. The orchestra arrived to the square early in the morning in full dress and were relentlessly rehearsing the Georgian anthem. People who wanted to occupy a place before the stands had arrived earlier and applauded the orchestra. The military came in ranks and dressed in American field uniform. These were soldiers of the first Gori brigade who were to take part in the parade. They were sporting new M-4 machine guns that Mikhail Saakashvili personally presented them in the city of Gori. The ceremony was symbolic. The military were handing over Kalashnikovs and were getting new M-4s in return. The president said: “Farewell to arms! Long live new, better weapons!” So now these rifles were to show the guests that the Georgian army had become more modern and stronger.
Presidents of Baltic nations, Romania and Poland occupied their seats, and their presence was to demonstrate the international backing for President Saakashvili that some Georgians doubted two days before the ceremony. The visits of the presidents were still unconfirmed on Friday. The only thing that was certain was that presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine would not be there, which perplexed analysts. Rumor spread that the Turkmen president would come, but he was nowhere to be seen on the inauguration day. Mikhail Saakashvili called those leader who maee it to Georgia “true friends of Georgia”.
At noon, the Ukrainian delegation headed by Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko was the last to arrive. The Ukrainian prime minister in a white coat was hard to recognize without her plait hair style. Mikhail Saakashvili appeared with his wife and children. Smiling and stretching hands to his voters he made his way to acting President Nino Burdzhanadze who handed him back the powers he relinquished shortly before the election. “We have shown it to the whole world that Georgia is a democratic country,” Mrs. Burdzhanadze said from the rostrum. She then said to Mikhail Saakashvili: “I wish you, the elected president, a good term in office, unite Georgia and do your best to make our country successful and prosperous!”
Mr. Saakashvili then put his right hand on his heart and swore on the constitution to protect his people and the territorial integrity of his country. The president greeted all regions of Georgia starting with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Several times after this speech he reiterated that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are full-fledged Georgian regions and promised that “Georgia will be indivisible and prosperous from Tskhinvali to Akhalkalaki and from Signaki to Sukhumi”. He said that the presidential election “was the most competitive and was recognized all over the world.” The president greeted opposition saying that any country needs them, and called on them for a constructive dialog that would benefit the nation. “I can perfectly understand those who are not happy with the result of the election,” he said. “But I want to say to them: ‘Georgia has got no time for confrontation because we share the same goal – a united and free Georgia. We are moving towards it by different ways but we’ve got the same goal.” He promised that opposition would have more representatives in the government and all levels of authorities. The president went on to say how much he had done for Georgia and how much he can do to fight poverty. He would raise pensions to $100. He would raise the level of subsistence. The welfare of each family will be the chief goal of the new government, and the government will be formed in a way that every citizen will know that they are the masters of this government.
The president also laid out a foreign policy course for the next five years. “The European Union is the ultimate harbor for Georgia,” Mr. Saakashvili said. “We still aim to join NATO. And this does not collide with interests of our northern neighbor. We are stretching a friendly hand to Russia and moving to NATO with more resolute steps.” The president reminded what Georgia was like four years earlier when “its sovereignty was under threat”. He called the modern Georgian army the country’s strongest ever and promised that he would hand a united Georgia to his successor.
As the president was speaking people on the square were interrupting him with rare applause waving small paper flags of Georgia. The flags were distributed an hour before the inauguration here on the square. The loudest round of applause was heard when the president was mentioning Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But even when the clapping was weak compared to the roar that on that square four years earlier at the president’s first swear-in ceremony or here at opposition rallies in November. The president could probably feel that too. In any case, he did not sound as self-assured as usual and he was reading his speech from the autocue rather than delivering it on the spot as he usually does. He nevertheless kept the square mesmerized for 40 minutes.
The speech was followed by an army parade. The opposition on Saturday made fun of it attributing it to “Saakashvili’s bad taste” and arguing that by taking military hardware to the streets Mr. Saakashvili wants to scare his opponents. But probably the military hardware in central Tbilisi also encouraged opposition to take its supporters to the racecourse contrary to earlier plans to disrupt the swear-in ceremony in the city center.
Infantry opened the parade. The soldiers were marching sedately looking at the stands, which was an imposing sight. President Saakashvili’s face, which was seen on huge screens installed on the square, was full of pride and satisfaction. He would bring his right hand up to the forehead to greet the soldiers. The last unit marched out, and camera men showed a close-up the pensive Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who was seated next to his Armenian counterpart. It was hard to guess what the minister was thinking about, but his face expressed no joy.
The infantry was followed by new armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery and volley-fire systems. Everything was brand new as if it had just been taken off the factory belt. The square were happily applauding to this splendor. The parade was crowned by military helicopters which took a flight above the square. The swear-in ceremony was over, and the president’s guests made their way to the reception to drink Georgian wine and listen to Jose Carreras.
An Alternative Swear-in Ceremony
Meanwhile, another part of the city saw opposition supporters gathering for their own swear-in ceremony at the racecourse. People were walking across the field where snow was mixed with dirt from all directions to the center of the racecourse. They were dressed shabbily, and probably it was for them that Saakashvili was saying about fighting poverty. But these people did not want to hear the president. They were making fun of him. Three men in caps and worn jackets were discussing the parade on Rustaveli street that they had seen on the TV. “Why was Misha [Saakashvili] keeping a hand by the empty head?” an elderly man asked another. “Didn’t he serve in the army and know that you can salute only when you’re wearing headgear?” “He did his service in a posh KGB unit,” another man said with conviction. “It is only in the Soviet army they would keep the hand by the cap,” the third one was saying. “Americans salute even by the empty head.” “Why?” the first man asked. “Their heads are as empty as Misha’s,” the second one said. Everyone burst out laughing.
As some seventy thousand people had gathered on the racecourse, opposition leader Giya Tortladze gave a shout from the rostrum: “There are no talks with Saakashvili! Don’t believe those lies! We won’t take any posts! The only post we are after is the presidency for Levan Gachechaladze! We will fight as long as it will take, and everyone must be sure that we are not making any concessions!” This was for those who believed rumors that authorities and oppositions were talks. But some negotiations were held. Authorities offered several posts in the government to opposition that they refused saying that the decision would bitterly split their allies and the appointees would not be able to influence the country’s policies anyway.
Mr. Tortladze called Mikhail Saakashvili “a self-proclaimed president like Bagapsh and Kokoity” and said that the opposition rally was “the start of a people’s disobedience movement”, which will strip Saakashvili of power. This caused a cheering of those people on the racecourse who started shouting: “Misha, step down!”
Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri asked everyone to get their hands up, which made up an impressive sea of hands. “Let the whole world see how many people are here who think Saakashvili is not legitimate and his inauguration means nothing to us,” he said and then turned his eyes to the sky. “Look, poor Saakashvili, how many people won’t recognize you are the president!” Mr. Dzidziguri called on the country leaders who came to the ceremony “not to counter the will of the Georgian people” because “it is your own people is by far more important than when Washington recognizes you”. “We won’t want to live in a Georgia where everything is a lie and where democracy itself is a lie!” the opposition leader shouted. “No, we don’t wanna!” hands of people up in the air supported him. “Today we are beginning to dismantle the power of Saakashvili!” he said causing a storm of applause. Yet, not one understood when and how the dismantlement is going to start, and neither Mr. Dzidziguri nor his allies explained it later.
Quite on the contrary, Mikhail Saakashvili’s main rival Levan Gachechiladze said from the rostrum to all those ready to start the dismantlement right then that there would be no marches or radical actions. Instead, he asked his supporters to go home after the rally. “We are going to work out the action plan and will let you know,” he promised. He added that opposition is set to make sure authorities provide “freedom of press, courts and election”. “We’ve got nothing to talk to with authorities now,” Mr. Gachechiladze said. “But if they don’t ensure free mass media, we will reserve the right for a national revolt.”
People on the racecourse were calling Mr. Gachechiladze “the true president of Georgia” and saying that that rally was actually his inauguration. He responded to this by saying that opposition would not be scared by tanks and jets demonstrated on Rustaveli street and that a day would come when the army and police would be on their side and then “Saakashvili will have to flee the country with disgrace”.
Still it was not clear what opposition was going to do now that the inauguration was over. Opposition leader Kakha Shartava had some sort of an answer: “In the parliamentary election in spring we will get rid of these authorities because in May they will not have the guts to do what they’ve just done.” Mr. Shartava meant that in spring Europe would be stricter in “protecting a fair election in Georgia” and “would not let have it rigged”. Opposition got this assurance after meeting EU and U.S. officials who explained that they were easy on the presidential elections fearing that otherwise opposition would overthrow the incumbent authorities. But the foreign observers promised to be as attentive and scrupulous as possible at the parliamentary election. Perhaps, these talks with Western officials one day before the inauguration made opposition change its plans to rally in the city center and move to the racecourse on the outskirts. “What if opposition is unhappy about the results of the parliamentary election after all?” Kommersant asked opposition leaders. “It’s in the authorities’ interests that opposition are happy,” Ivlian Khaindrava, leader of the Republican party, said. “Otherwise Saakashvili shouldn’t feel bad when he is overthrown.”
Olga Allenova and David Gamtsemlidze
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 21, 2008
|
|
|
