Page 7 - GEORptJun18

crowd on May 31 that resulted in him being booed and shouted down, the government has not so far been able to calm the situation.
Highlighting the seriousness of the crisis, the following day, Kvirikashvili issued a statement explaining his position, claiming that “a small group of politically motivated people” had prevented him from delivering his message directly to the protesters.
He stressed that the investigation would be re-opened in a process led by Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, while Kvirikashvili himself “will be involved in every step and ... will control the whole process.” The parliament is also opening an investigation into the case.
As the search for a replacement for Shotadze begins, Kvirikashvili said he would ensure the process would be legitimate, with “maximum involvement of the society, all the factions of the parliament, civil society, the NGO sector, and our society as a whole”.
However, Saralidze was not satisfied with Kvirikashvili’s attempt to reach out, and in a strongly worded Facebook post called the pledge to reopen the investigation “the government's way of trying to deceive me”.
“The witnesses are scared and bribed. Substances are destroyed. If witnesses and evidence do not exist, there is no investigation,” he wrote. A later post on June 2 called on people to join him in Tbilisi’s central Rustavali square at 6pm. The bereaved father also met with President Giorgi Margvelashvili, saying after the meeting that the president had expressed his solidarity with the protesters.
The protests come amid a turbulent spring in both Georgia and neighbouring Armenia. Earlier this month, thousands of young Georgians protested by holding a dance music party in the square outside the parliament following brutal police raids on a number of popular nightclubs on May 11.
2.2 Georgia to sever diplomatic relations with Syria in protest at recognition of breakaway regions
Georgia is severing diplomatic relations with Syria over its decision to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries.
Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze on May 29 said on Twitter that "recognition of [the] independence of [the] historic regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali [South Ossetia], by [the] Russian-manipulated [Bashar al-]Assad regime in Syria is another blatant violation of [international] law by Assad and should be condemned by the [international] community".
A separatist official in Abkhazia and an entity in South Ossetia announced Syria's recognition of independence, according to RFE/RL.
A document on the website of de facto Abkhaz President Raul Khajimba said Abkhazia and Syria "agreed on the mutual recognition and establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries through embassies, which reflects their common [desire] to develop relations in all areas".
The same day, a statement on the website of the self-declared South Ossetian
7 GEORGIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com