A response to Dr Kirill Nourzhanov, “'Coloured revolutions' revealed to be hollow at core” (JRL #9244)

In writing about Georgia, Dr. Nourzhanov says “The problem is, popular involvement in the regime change has been overstated. The majority of the population refrained from active protest. In Georgia, political battles occurred exclusively in the capital city, involving fewer than 10,000 opposition supporters.”

This is incorrect. In the buildup to the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia (that name didn’t appear until Shevardnadze had already fled Parliament), Saakashvili started his drive on Tbilisi in Zugdidi in the far west, and large rallies where held in all the main towns along the road to Tbilisi, especially in Kutaisi and Gori. What is more, one of the crucial moments took place in Zugdidi, when a crack special forces unit stationed there announced that it was defecting to the opposition. A large number of people came in from the regions to participate in the popular demonstrations ­ in many cases they walked dozens of kilometers to do this, as the government had closed off the roads and blocked busses.

I’m not sure where Nourzhanov gets the figure of 10,000 opposition supporters. Even opponents of the current government in Georgia usually put the figure much higher. I was there, and there seemed to me to be at leased ten times that, people from many different regions and all walks of life. If what I experienced does not represent popular involvement, then I think that no such thing exists.

In any case, Similar events to those in Tbilisi were repeated in the Ajaran capital of Batumi several months later, when popular demonstrations led to collapse of local warlord Alsan Abashidze’s regime

Dr. Nourzhanov says “Personal power and mercantile self-interest continue to motivate politicians in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.” I wonder if Dr. Nourzhanov would be so good as to indicate a country where politicians are not motivated by personal power and mercantile self-interest. I would like to move there.

Dr. Nourzhanov then says “The results of Mikhail Saakashvili's presidency in Georgia are even more disastrous [than Yushchenko’s in Ukraine].” I wonder on what basis he has decided that Saakashvili’s presidency is a disaster. I would invite Dr. Nourzhanov to come here to Georgia and talk to people for a few days. Certainly there are things with which people are less than satisfied, but I think he would be surprised at the new sense of optimism and hope that is still tangible, nearly two years after the “Rose Revolution,” and that had not existed here for a very long time.

Timothy Blauvelt
Tbilisi, Georgi.