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Citizens! Please, disperse! Otherwise…

Photographer: Tako Robakidze

31.12.24
Topic: Activism City

Hundreds of thousands of citizens have protested against the government on Rustaveli Avenue in the capital since November 28, 2024. Continuous resistance was triggered by the statement of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who said that the Georgian Dream Party would suspend negotiations with the EU until 2028.

About 400 people have been arrested during the ongoing protest, 44 of them on criminal charges. In addition to students, actors, a doctor, a journalist, and academics, one minor is also in custody. For the past two weeks, citizens have been seeking stronger connections and, to intensify the protest, they have been organizing marches from various points in the city to the Georgian Parliament building.

Chai Khana presents Tbilisi and the main avenue of the manifestation as captured through Tako Robakidze's lens as a photo essay that covers the days of protests.



Riot police use water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas, chasing protesters through the streets and trapping demonstrators.

To defend themselves from water cannons, pepper spray, and the riot police, demonstrators began building barricades on Rustaveli Avenue.

Riot police have used water cannons, tear gas, and mass arrests to suppress the protests, while demonstrators have fought back by firing fireworks. Citizens gather every evening on the city’s main avenue to express resistance. 

Riot police take up positions on a side street near the parliament building, on Chichinadze Street. They chase protesters through the streets, even entering shops to trap demonstrators.

Several hundred riot police are deployed on Chichinadze Street, a side street near Parliament.

People run to escape the tear gas.

For several days, the police dispersed protesters every night on Rustaveli Avenue using water cannons and tear gas. After breaking up the gatherings, several people were  arrested. They report that the police encircled the protesters to entrapment.

Riot police used pepper spray against demonstrators on Rustaveli Avenue.

Sister Sidonia prays with protesters at the Kashueti Church on Rustaveli Avenue, where the main demonstration is being held. She arrived from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine in the morning.

Riot police chase demonstrators after dispersing the protest.

Young people protect themselves from tear gas capsules with handmade shields.

A demonstrator runs with a water bottle containing a tear gas canister. The protesters quickly learned how to extinguish the tear gas. They carried full water bottles, which they use to put out the gas canisters.

A demonstrator in a cloud of tear gas with a water bottle containing a tear gas canister.

Demonstrators set off fireworks on Rustaveli Avenue.

Protesters jump in front of the water cannon.

Fireworks illuminate the Christmas tree and Parliament. Before the Christmas tree was fully assembled, demonstrators hung photos of people who had been injured and beaten alongside flags and signs painted with slogans.

A man holds a European Union flag behind the barricades. To defend themselves from water cannons, pepper spray, and the riot police, demonstrators put up barricades on Rustaveli Avenue.

The police began blocking the smaller streets and moving in from there. Demonstrators set up barricades on one of the narrow streets and launched fireworks.

A street scene near the Parliament.

Young people, holding onto each other, face the water cannon.

Firework remnants, tear gas, and protesters wearing gas masks.

Volunteers apply saline solution to a man who was sprayed in the face with pepper spray by the police.

Demonstrators collected hundreds of tear gas canisters and arranged them on Rustaveli Avenue in front of the riot police.

Protesters hold up a huge Georgian flag on Freedom Square. Since the protest started, people began organizing protest marches every day. They gathered based on profession, region, or any shared idea.

A slogan painted on the wall of the parliament building: “Freedom for Political Prisoners.”

Avtandil Titvinidze, a protester who was heavily beaten while detained by police officers and riot police on November 30, 2024, during a pro-European demonstration, was later found guilty of violating the law and fined 2,000 GEL.

A demonstrator bangs a stone on the iron barricade the government put at the central entrance of the parliament building.

Masked police officers guard the Christmas tree. Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced that the lights would go on the capital's main Christmas tree on Saturday, December 14 despite the ongoing protest.

A livestream of the presidential elections broadcast on the main pro-government channel, TV Imedi, captured on a computer screen.

Hundreds of masked police officers deployed to guard the Christmas tree.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on Rustaveli Avenue to listen to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili. On December 23, she addressed the demonstrators, reaffirming her commitment to the country's constitution and calling for dialogue to schedule new parliamentary elections before December 29.

March "Toward Europe with Khorumi" Thousands of people gathered on Rustaveli Avenue to perform the national Georgian war dance, Khorumi.

For more than a month, demonstrators have demanded new elections and freedom for all political prisoners.

"United for True Peace" Representatives from various religious groups in Georgia march, denouncing the violence against peaceful protesters, the assault on the rule of law, and the "betrayal of the country's historic path."

A large poster of people who have been detained and beaten. Detainees recall their experiences of torture and ill-treatment.

People hold photos of individuals beaten by riot police or regular police.

Young people with EU and Georgian flags sit on the wall in front of the parliament building.

On the day of his inauguration, December 29, Mikheil Kavelashvili signed the laws that were adopted by Parliament on December 13 in the third reading. Amendments were made to 28 existing laws, including the "Law on Public Service," "Law on Police," "Law on Assembly and Demonstration," as well as the administrative offenses, criminal law, and election codes. Some of the laws, passed by the "Georgian Dream" party in Parliament through an expedited process, have already entered into force. Human rights defenders have called them "repressive," "restrictive," and "undemocratic."

#Protest #Tbilisi #NewYear #2024 #November-December
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