First of all, I would like to thank Ms. Salome Zurabishvili for her initiative that has enabled us to deliberate upon the issue: why we, a significant part of political parties, feel we have to continue our struggle for regime change in Georgia, and do it in the presence and with participation of Georgian society, political parties, diplomatic corps and NGOs. We will hear many arguments justifying that the circumstances as those existing in Georgia would cause the top management of our country at least be politically accountable for the situation if it were in any civilized, more or less democratic state.

We have representatives of diplomatic corps as attendees here today. I would like to reinstate my deepest respect to our guests and note that no democratic society would have forgiven its president his or her ignoring all the warnings given by our western friends and involving the country in a military adventure in advance destined to be lost and resulting in losing control over about 20% of our land. Moreover, we have witnessed Russian military bases returning to our country; our prospects for NATO membership and closer ties with EU structures have been postponed for an indefinite period; the more or less rebuilt ‘bridge’ connecting us to the population of so-called South Ossetia has again been burned, making the prospects for conflict settlement even more obscure and a long-term process. It would make a long list to mention all the political and criminal offences of the Government.

It is 7^th November today, a day extremely severe for any of us. For me, personally, this date is twice as such as I can say with full certainty it was possible to avoid the events of 7^th November 2007. The resulting disillusionment, failure of the Government to fulfill its promises given after the Rose Revolution forced hundreds of thousands of people to go to the streets in protest rallies.

The Government is reconstructing the roads, which is very good; we are fully supplied with electricity, which is also very good; it is good that Tbilisi and other Georgian cities are becoming prettier decorated with flowers in the streets. But… this was not the main promise given during the Rose Revolution. The main promise was to make the country justly, free it from corruption, equip it with an impartial court, and strengthen its democracy, stability and predictability. The main promise was to restore the territorial integrity too. Unfortunately, none of these promises have been fulfilled.

President and our Government keep feeling proud by lack of corruption in our country. It is certainly a positive development that patrol police do not demand bribes, but we all know that the top management of our country has never been as corrupted as today. This fact has been noted in a report by the US State Department: it says Georgia stands out for elite corruption. And we know that all the people involved in the ruling circles are taking advantage of absolute impunity. Vivid examples of this syndrome include the day of 7^th November 2007 and murder of Sandro Girgvliani.

During his meeting with Georgian youth President of Georgia admitted the reasons of 7^th November, we heard his confession about the reasons the rally that was practically over was broken up.

President was open in his statements. He said in any country the army and police must demonstrate that there is a ruling power, the state, and the army and police must be able to show the people their own place. Yes, the rally was broken up because the Government did not want it to end peacefully. They wanted to punish the people who dared voice their protest against the Government’s actions. I sincerely regret I was not able to avoid such outcome.

After 7^th November 2007 the Government had a unique chance; a chance given to it by Georgian people, opposition forces and international community; a chance that implied a certain support, forgiveness, and accommodation. The people chose to give another chance to its Government even after the failed inauguration in January 2008; even after the justification of the faulty elections by the international community. However, the Government failed to take the chance. By that time it could still return the country to the path of democratic development, and implement the reforms the President promised Levan Gachechiladze and Davit Usupashvili in front of me. Those reform formed the basis of a wide range of changes to the elections code, media freedom, judiciary system and law enforcement agencies.

Had those promises been fulfilled, I am sure, the country would have been on its way to building a healthy and democratic society by now. The country would have been able to elect a representative parliament comprising a wide range of parties and enabling healthy discussions on all kinds of issues. In those circumstances the President would have thought twice before making a decision on bombing Tskhinvali.

Dear friends, we all, Georgian society and international community gave our preference to long-term stability in January 2008. We tried to ignore the deep-rooted problems of democracy here. January 2008, then May 2008 and ultimately, 7^th August 2008 showed us that choice between democracy and stability is not possible. The country cannot be stable unless it is democratic.

I am one of those whose political rating was affected most by their strife for stability. I always believed stability was a priority. I was always careful so that stability of the country would not be shattered. However, in the end I became sure we cannot have stability without democracy. Let us not make the same mistake we made in January 2008. Let us not choose between democracy and stability. This country needs both. Everyone speaking about stability and ignoring democracy today will have to share the responsibility some day.

The country cannot be stable if it continues to have political prisoners and TV channels owned by the Ministry of Interior; if the President, even after publication of Tagliavini report, continues to state he would do the same in Tskhinvali what he did in August 2008.

We will continue our struggle to stop Georgian population being categorized as a second-sort nation. Being fully accountable for my words, I say that while Georgia continues to have a president for whom violation of democratic principles is a daily process, who severs the country from western values, and who willfully or incidentally facilitates spreading of disillusionment and nihilism towards our western course; while Georgia continues to have a president who is proud of having bombed Tskhinvali and his own people; and until the people start doing everything to achieve fair democratic elections, we will continue to be a second-sort nation.

I am totally sure that we will continue our struggle against making Georgia a totalitarian state. This country is unfortunately heading fast to a totalitarian regime. Yes, we see these steps every day. This can only be stopped by Georgian people and our western friends. And in order to stop this, we must, first of all, clearly restate the principles the country and its Government must make their guidelines in order to become part of the civilized world.