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144-593: United National Movement ( UNM ; Georgian : ერთიანი ნაციონალური მოძრაობა , romanized : ertiani natsionaluri modzraoba ) also colloquially known as the Natsebi is a liberal conservative political party in Georgia . Tina Bokuchava serves as the party's chairman, while its honorary chairman Mikheil Saakashvili is considered the de facto leader. UNM was founded by Mikheil Saakashvili in 2001, in opposition to Eduard Shevardnadze 's government, rising to power following

288-451: A vigesimal numeric system like Basque and (partially) French . Numbers greater than 20 and less than 100 are described as the sum of the greatest possible multiple of 20 plus the remainder. For example, "93" literally translates as 'four times twenty plus thirteen' ( ოთხმოცდაცამეტი , otkhmotsdatsamet’i ). One of the most important Georgian dictionaries is the Explanatory dictionary of

432-448: A Dictator , a film portraying the fall of Slobodan Milošević in the nonviolent Serbian revolution. Other networks, such as Imedi television and Mze began to report on the political process more objectively, possibly influenced by Rustavi-2's defiance. Rustavi-2 would eventually be the network to commission and broadcast the exit poll results of the 2003 parliamentary election, which found Saakashvili's National Movement party victorious over

576-552: A Roman grammarian from the 2nd century AD. The first direct attestations of the language are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, and the oldest surviving literary work is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli . The emergence of Georgian as a written language appears to have been the result of the Christianization of Georgia in the mid-4th century, which led to

720-475: A Russia dominated international organization of post-Soviet states , and called for others to do so as well. Russia mostly completed its withdrawal of troops from undisputed parts of Georgia on 8 October. The South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for an ethnic cleansing of Georgians . The war displaced 192,000 people. While many returned to their homes after

864-571: A Serbian organization that played an important role in the Bulldozer Revolution that happened three years prior and which ended the presidency of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia. A significant source of funding for the Rose Revolution was the network of foundations and NGOs associated with Hungarian-American billionaire financier George Soros . The Foundation for Defense of Democracies reports

1008-665: A capital-like effect called Mtavruli for titles and inscriptions. Georgian is an agglutinative language with a complex verb structure that can include up to eight morphemes , exhibiting polypersonalism . The language has seven noun cases and employs a left-branching structure with adjectives preceding nouns and postpositions instead of prepositions. Georgian lacks grammatical gender and articles, with definite meanings established through context. Georgian's rich derivation system allows for extensive noun and verb formation from roots, with many words featuring initial consonant clusters. The Georgian writing system has evolved from ancient scripts to

1152-587: A key player in the conflict. This was viewed as a surprise considering the Georgian and Russian authorities having been at odds over the issue. Despite this minor win, the South Ossetia situation was viewed as an overall setback for the Rose Revolution government. While Saakashvili early on enjoyed personal popularity for his youth, vigour, and international profile, allegations of human rights abuses and authoritarianism started to create an opposition movement against him. Soon UNM started to experience defections with one of

1296-504: A local election monitoring group). Saakashvilli and the United Opposition accepted ISFED's PVT as "official" results, and urged Georgians to demonstrate against Shevardnadze's government and engage in nonviolent civil disobedience against the authorities. The main democratic opposition parties united to demand the ousting of Shevardnadze and the rerun of the elections. In mid-November, massive antigovernmental demonstrations started in

1440-682: A man who was unwilling to break the Soviet patterns of personal power, political corruption, and authoritarian rule embedded in traditional Soviet cadre politics. Corruption had become so rampant, that off-the-record deals may have accounted for 60-70% of Georgia's total economic activity. The Shevardnadze regime was not seen as being capable of addressing corruption. Opposition candidates, such as Saakashvili, could successfully gain much support with an anti-corruption political platform. Georgia held parliamentary elections on November 2, 2003. At stake were 235 seats in parliament of which 135 would be decided by

1584-475: A more pragmatic approach with Russia while maintaining a pro-Western and pro-NATO foreign policy. In subsequent months, two other opposition parties joined the coalition - the Conservative Party and Industry Will Save Georgia . Georgian Dream was transformed into a political party on 21 April 2012, being the leading party of the coalition. Georgian Dream held mass demonstrations around the country, with

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1728-405: A nationwide proportional party-list system and 85 were "majoritarian" contests in which a winner would be determined in each of Georgia's 85 electoral districts. In addition, a nationwide referendum was held on whether the future parliament should be reduced to 150 members. Voters used a separate ballot for each of these three contests, folding them together and placing them in a single envelope which

1872-457: A network of pro-democratic organizations. Western democracy promoters also circulated public opinion polls and scrutinized election data throughout Georgia. An important factor in the Rose Revolution was the independent television channel Rustavi-2 , which served as an ally for the opposition movement for years. It was highly critical of the regime, and openly supported the opposition. Georgia's broad Freedom of Information law gave media outlets

2016-406: A new leader. The outgoing speaker of parliament, Nino Burjanadze, assumed the presidency until new elections could be held. The Supreme Court of Georgia annulled the results of the parliamentary elections. New elections happened six weeks later on January 4, 2004. Unopposed and with 96.2 percent of the vote, Saakashvili became the new president of Georgia and was inaugurated on January 25. He became

2160-460: A number of qualified young people to work for the government when previously they would be relegated to working abroad or for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Another way UNM tried to fight corruption was through the prosecution of former major government officials for it. The officials would have to pay a large fine covering for the embezzled sums of money after which they would be let go. Most of those arrests were made in early 2004 after which

2304-555: A parade commemorating Georgian Independence Day. Georgian police suppressed the demonstrations with tear gas and rubber bullets. Saakashvili accused the protesters of attempting to orchestrate a government takeover using paramilitary groups. The public discontent over Saakashvili's presidency was high, but no opposition party managed to unite the population around its platform. This situation changed in late 2011 when Bidzina Ivanishvili , an oligarch primarily known for charity work and contributions to public projects, decided to step out of

2448-493: A party for the people disillusioned with the Georgian Dream government, while Georgian Dream became a front for those who featured UNM's return to power. UNM began to build its identity on being the sole party capable of challenging Georgian Dream. In 2013 presidential election , United National Movement suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of Georgian Dream with its candidates Giorgi Margvelashvili attaining 62.12%, while

2592-535: A rally held in downtown Tbilisi on 27 May 2012 having been attended by an estimated 80,000 people. Georgian Dream's campaign surged after the Gldani prison scandal , which highlighted widespread torture in Georgian prisons under Saakashvili's administration. In response to GD rallies that regularly attracted tens of thousands of people, the government responded by staging a rival mass event. The six-party Georgian Dream coalition led by Ivanishvili successfully challenged UNM in

2736-490: A ri means 'friend'; megobrebi ( megob Ø rebi ) means 'friends', with the loss of a in the last syllable of the word stem. Georgian has seven noun cases: nominative , ergative , dative , genitive , instrumental , adverbial and vocative . An interesting feature of Georgian is that, while the subject of a sentence is generally in the nominative case and the object is in the accusative case (or dative), one can find this reversed in many situations (this depends mainly on

2880-399: A row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნ ი gvprtskvni 'you peel us' and მწვრთნ ელი mts’vrtneli 'trainer'. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice and suggests this may be one cue distinguishing ejectives from their aspirated and voiced counterparts. Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently

3024-497: A significant role in the Rose Revolution. By the end of 2000, the number of NGOs estimated to be in Georgia numbered around four thousand. The 1997 Civil Code made the registration of an NGO relatively easy, and they operated in Georgia with few restrictions. Though only a small portion of those likely had influence on the government or were successful in lobbying, several had leverage in parliament. While public participation in these NGOs

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3168-519: A victory in the second round. On 24 March 2019, Saakashvili stepped down as the party chairman, with him being succeeded by Vashadze. Nevertheless, Saakashvili remained the most influential figure in the party. The summer of 2019 set off a prolonged period of political unrest and civil discontent with Georgian Dream's rule. On 20 June 2019, Parliament of Georgia hosted the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy , an organization set up by

3312-589: A word. Georgian vowels in non-initial syllables are pronounced with a shorter duration compared to vowels in initial syllables. long polysyllabic words may have a secondary stress on their third or fourth syllable. Georgian contains many "harmonic clusters" involving two consonants of a similar type (voiced, aspirated, or ejective) that are pronounced with only a single release; e.g. ბგ ერა bgera 'sound', ცხ ოვრება tskhovreba 'life', and წყ ალი ts’q’ali 'water'. There are also frequent consonant clusters , sometimes involving more than six consonants in

3456-625: Is because syllables in the language often begin with two consonants. Recordings are available on the relevant Wiktionary entries, linked to below. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : Rose Revolution [REDACTED] Government of Georgia [REDACTED] Mikheil Saakashvili [REDACTED] Nino Burjanadze [REDACTED] Zurab Zhvania [REDACTED] Eduard Shevardnadze The Rose Revolution or Revolution of Roses ( Georgian : ვარდების რევოლუცია , romanized : vardebis revolutsia )

3600-512: Is most closely related to the Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ) and more distantly to Svan . Georgian has various dialects , with standard Georgian based on the Kartlian dialect, and all dialects are mutually intelligible. The history of Georgian spans from Early Old Georgian in the 5th century, to Modern Georgian today. Its development as a written language began with the Christianization of Georgia in

3744-947: Is rather light, and in fact Georgian transliterates the tenuis stops in foreign words and names with the ejectives. The coronal occlusives ( /tʰ tʼ d n/ , not necessarily affricates) are variously described as apical dental, laminal alveolar, and "dental". Per Canepari, the main realizations of the vowels are [ i ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ], [ o̞ ], [ u ]. Aronson describes their realizations as [ i̞ ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ] (but "slightly fronted"), [ o̞ ], [ u̞ ]. Shosted transcribed one speaker's pronunciation more-or-less consistently with [ i ], [ ɛ ], [ ɑ ], [ ɔ ], [ u ]. Allophonically, [ ə ] may be inserted to break up consonant clusters, as in /dɡas/ [dəɡäs] . In casual speech, /iV, Vi/ sequences can be realized phonetically as [jV~i̯V, Vj~Vi̯]. Phrase-final unstressed vowels may sometimes be partially reduced. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm. Stress

3888-401: Is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words. Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word and near the end of a phrase. According to Borise, Georgian has fixed initial word-level stress cued primarily by greater syllable duration and intensity of the initial syllable of

4032-452: The Dittionario giorgiano e italiano . These were meant to help western Catholic missionaries learn Georgian for evangelical purposes. On the left are IPA symbols, and on the right are the corresponding letters of the modern Georgian alphabet, which is essentially phonemic. Former /qʰ/ ( ჴ ) has merged with /x/ ( ხ ), leaving only the latter. The glottalization of the ejectives

4176-494: The Mkhedruli script is almost completely dominant; the others are used mostly in religious documents and architecture. Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use; a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language. According to the traditional account written down by Leonti Mroveli in

4320-679: The 2004 parliamentary election . Reforming a weak and corrupt state was a central goal of the Rose Revolution government. The salaries given out to state employees were so low, that based on the wages an employee could not theoretically survive. This led to government officials having to take bribes and engage in other corrupt practices to sustain themselves. In 2004, UNM introduced the Reform and Development Fund which raised salaries to several thousand top officials with it being funded by international donors and Georgian businesses. Salary increases were later expanded to law and military officials. This attracted

4464-452: The 2012 parliamentary election . It won 54.97% of the vote, while UNM received 40.34%, granting the coalition a majority of 85 seats in parliament. The remaining 65 seats went to UNM. Saakashvili conceded the loss and pledged to support the constitutional process of forming a new government, while at the same time noting his deep opposition to the coalition. This was the first democratic transfer of power in Georgia. Soon after coming to power,

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4608-753: The Chechen conflict and corruption investigations. In October, agents from the National Security Ministry raided the headquarters of Rustavi-2. The tax-raid was broadcast on television from outside the building. Upwards of seven thousand student-led protestors, many mobilized by the Liberty Institute NGO, amassed outside the headquarters and demanded the resignation of the Shevardnadze government. Shevardnadze responded by sacking his cabinet and his minister of security. Importantly, this event triggered

4752-506: The Georgian Orthodox Church and together are called Khutsuri 'priest alphabet'. In Mkhedruli , there is no case. Sometimes, however, a capital-like effect, called Mtavruli ('title' or 'heading'), is achieved by modifying the letters so that their vertical sizes are identical and they rest on the baseline with no descenders. These capital-like letters are often used in page headings, chapter titles, monumental inscriptions, and

4896-642: The Georgia–Russia border through the Roki Tunnel before the conflict broke out. Russian and separatist forces fought Georgian troops in and around South Ossetia for several days, until Georgian forces retreated. Russian and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia, while Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian Black Sea coastline. Nicolas Sarkozy ,

5040-440: The Gldani prison scandal with several videos being released showing prison guards torturing, taunting, and sexually assaulting detainees. UNM subsequently lost the 2012 parliamentary election to Georgian Dream . It has since served as the main opposition party frequently criticizing the government for what it sees as its pro-Russia policies. Mikheil Saakashvili , the founder of United National Movement (UNM), had his start in

5184-698: The Greek parliament to unite Orthodox Christian lawmakers worldwide. With both Russia and Georgia being members of the organization, the Russian delegation arrived to take part in the session in the Georgian parliament. The session was opened with a speech from Sergei Gavrilov , a Russian lawmaker from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , whilst sitting in the chair of the Head of Parliament. The opposition said it

5328-452: The Kartlian dialect. Over the centuries, it has exerted a strong influence on the other dialects. As a result, they are all, generally, mutually intelligible with standard Georgian, and with one another. The history of the Georgian language is conventionally divided into the following phases: The earliest extant references to Georgian are found in the writings of Marcus Cornelius Fronto ,

5472-628: The Parliament session with red roses in hand. The revolution was led by Shevardnadze's former political allies, Mikheil Saakashvili, Nino Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania . Consisting of twenty days of protests from 3 to 23 November 2003, the Revolution triggered new presidential and parliamentary elections in Georgia, which brought the National Movement – Democrats coalition to the power. The death of Zurab Zhvania in uncertain circumstances and

5616-472: The President of France , personally negotiated a ceasefire agreement on 12 August. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi , Senaki , Poti and Gori . Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia on 26 August and the Georgian government severed diplomatic relations with Russia. Georgia additionally withdrew from Commonwealth of Independent States ,

5760-748: The Rose Revolution in 2003. During its nine-year rule, UNM implemented several major reforms. The government focused on rooting out corruption and crime, establishing a free market economy, pursuing a pro-Western foreign policy, and regaining territorial integrity. The latter two put it in direct conflict with Russia exploding into a full-on war in 2008 that resulted in 20% of Georgia's territory being occupied by Russia to this day. During its second term, accusations mounted over UNM's alleged authoritarian tendencies with its detractors highlighting poor prison conditions, violent protest dispersals, and media and business intimidation as issues. This culminated in

5904-471: The conservative values of the Georgian population. In 2005, the parliament took steps to take religion out of public education, passing the General Education Act, that restricted the teaching of religion in schools and the use of religious symbols in the school space for devotional purposes. One of the main goals of the Rose Revolution government was restoring territorial control. Adjara , which at

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6048-489: The de facto leader of the coalition Nika Melia on February 28. On March 1, 2021, EU Council President Charles Michel launched new negotiations between Georgian Dream and the opposition to put an end to the political crisis with SU being represented by Salome Samadashvili and Akaki Minashvili from UNM and Khatuna Samnidze from the Republican Party. The sides reached an agreement on April 19, although SU refused to sign

6192-452: The 11th century, the first Georgian script was created by the first ruler of the Kingdom of Iberia , Pharnavaz , in the 3rd century BC. The first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD. There are now three Georgian scripts, called Asomtavruli 'capitals', Nuskhuri 'small letters', and Mkhedruli . The first two are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of

6336-456: The 2 November parliamentary elections in Georgia fell short of a number of OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections. Mikheil Saakashvili claimed that he had won the elections (a claim supported by independent exit polls ). This was confirmed by an independent parallel vote tabulation (PVT) conducted by the ISFED (International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy,

6480-470: The 2016 election, calling for a boycott, and had further opposed the initiative of party members to appoint a new chairman in his place. A majority of the UNM's elected MPs (21 out of 27) defected to European Georgia (EG), leaving UNM with only six MPs in the parliament. In the 2017 local elections , UNM saw a reduction in its vote share, falling to 17.08%, however, it remained the largest opposition party. The party

6624-650: The 30-party group. On September 7, Strength Is in Unity nominated former President Mikheil Saakashvili as its nominee for Prime Minister of Georgia, a controversial choice as the UNM leader was at the time in exile in Ukraine and had been convicted in absentia by Georgian courts in 2018. Nonetheless, five political parties (UNM, Progress and Freedom , State for the People, the Republican Party, and European Democrats) came together on September 15 and signed an agreement to formally recreate

6768-548: The 4th century. Georgian phonology features a rich consonant system, including aspirated, voiced, and ejective stops , affricates , and fricatives . Its vowel system consists of five vowels with varying realizations. Georgian prosody involves weak stress, with disagreements among linguists on its placement. The language's phonotactics include complex consonant clusters and harmonic clusters. The Mkhedruli script , dominant in modern usage, corresponds closely to Georgian phonemes and has no case distinction, though it employs

6912-662: The Christian Conservative Party, the Civil Alliance for Freedom, New Georgia , Georgia Among Leaders, and the European Democrats . The presidential election was seen as an opportunity for UNM to achieve its first victory since its loss of power. It was nearly successful in defeating the Georgian Dream-backed independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili in the first round with Vashadze getting 37.74% of

7056-515: The Council of Europe designated the country as being subject to "self-censored media" with it in 2006 noting that the "media is financially weak and still lacks the democratic culture which would allow it to credibly perform their role of a democratic watchdog". Some additionally alleged that opposition voices were taken off the air due to government pressure. However, others saw the media legislation as being liberal and Georgian media being free to criticize

7200-495: The Georgian Dream coalition started persecuting UNM government officials with criminal charges ranging from embezzlement to abuse of power and torture. Former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili , governor of Kakheti Zurab Tchiaberashvili , and Head of the Penitentiary Department Bacho Akhalaia were among the ones who were arrested. Overall more than 20,000 complaints were filed by citizens and inmates with

7344-568: The Georgian language ( ქართული ენის განმარტებითი ლექსიკონი ). It consists of eight volumes and about 115,000 words. It was produced between 1950 and 1964, by a team of linguists under the direction of Arnold Chikobava . Georgian has a word derivation system, which allows the derivation of nouns from verb roots both with prefixes and suffixes, for example: It is also possible to derive verbs from nouns: Likewise, verbs can be derived from adjectives, for example: In Georgian many nouns and adjectives begin with two or more contiguous consonants. This

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7488-471: The New Rights Party (NRP) being the most successful political party, obtaining 558 parliamentary seats. The Citizens' Union of Georgia won only 70 out of approximately 4,850 local parliamentary seats. Following the disastrous 2002 local elections, Shevardnadze made a concerted attempt to rebuild a political coalition that could support him. The CUG was rebuilt before the 2003 parliamentary election, which

7632-442: The People bloc for the 2016 parliamentary election . Soon after the election, where UNM received 27.11% of the proportional vote, it experienced a major party split on 12 January 2017, as a result of a conflict between Davit Bakradze, Giga Bokeria , former mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava along with their supporters, and members of the party loyal to Saakashvili. Saakashvili had rejected the party's decision to enter parliament after

7776-453: The Prosecutor's Office in connection to the past administration, including 4,000 cases of alleged torture or ill-treatment. In total thirty-five people were persecuted. With its reputation being tarnished, widespread calls were made by the public to ban the party altogether. The Georgian Dream coalition itself was divided over the issue with some factions supporting the move, while others such as

7920-609: The Republican Party broke the boycott and entered the Supreme Council on December 25. In the aftermath of the election and the ensuing political crisis, the SU backed negotiations with Georgian Dream facilitated by the Western countries. While SU MPs formally renounced their mandates, Parliament formally rejected their suspension on February 2, which allowed for negotiations to continue. The crisis worsened when authorities arrested UNM chairman and

8064-502: The Rose Revolution, and numerous large and relatively uninhibited NGOs were able to operate in Georgia prior to the 2003 parliamentary elections. Georgia's weak economy allowed these NGOs, who were often partially foreign funded, to pay decent salaries that would not have been available in working for the Georgian state. As early as the Summer of 2002, there was great concern amongst the leaders of Georgia's most influential NGOs that Shevardnadze

8208-419: The SU coalition. The coalition's electoral list was led by singer Vakhtang Kikabidze . Out of 30 majoritarian districts, four SU nominees were members of Progress and Freedom, while the other 26 were members of UNM. Strength is in Unity won 27.1% in the parliamentary election , winning 36 seats in the national legislature and finishing second, behind Georgian Dream. In 2020 Adjaran legislative election , which

8352-578: The SU members, signed an agreement to field joint candidates in the various majoritarian districts of Tbilisi, although SU would break the agreement by nominating Khatia Dekanoidze to run in the Isani Majoritarian District , where other parties had already nominated Giorgi Vashadze. Meanwhile, SU's other nominees in Tbilisi ( Nika Melia in Gldani and Levan Khabeishvili in Samgori) were endorsed by

8496-576: The Soros Foundation ... all the NGOs which gravitate around the Soros Foundation undeniably carried the revolution. However, one cannot end one's analysis with the revolution [only] and one clearly sees that, afterwards, the Soros Foundation and the NGOs were integrated into power. The amount of international involvement created a variety of conspiracy theories. The most popular implies that the United States

8640-514: The South Ossetian forces started shelling Georgian villages, with Georgia sending its army units into the conflict zone on 7 August. The Georgian army managed to quickly take control of Tskhinvali. Russia soon falsely accused the Georgian side of committing a genocide and launched a full-scale land, air, and sea invasion of Georgia, including its undisputed territory on 8 August. Additionally, reports exist of some Russian troops illicitly crossing

8784-659: The South Ossetians growing angry at Georgia and consolidating their separatist positions. Closing the Ergneti Black Market reduced corruption, however, it also made South Ossetia economically trapped. Additionally, military skirmishes ensued resulting in the loss of life. The UNM government decided to abandon its approach recognizing it as a mistake. In January 2005, the Georgian government presented its peace plan at OSCE conference held in Ljubljana garnering Russian support,

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8928-525: The UNM candidate David Bakradze managed to only score 21.72%. Shortly after the election, Saakashvili left Georgia due to fears he would be persecuted as well. In 2014, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia filed criminal charges against Saakashvili. In 2018, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced him in absentia to six years in prison for ordering the beating of Valeri Gelashvili and pardoning in prior agreement

9072-413: The United States, as in other colour revolutions, has been a subject of significant controversy. The Citizens' Union of Georgia (CUG) had been the ruling party for most of Eduard Shevardnadze 's Presidency, and represented the interests of Shevardnadze loyalists. The ineffectiveness of the government and the decreasing popularity of the regime led to the defection of numerous parliamentary deputies from

9216-411: The ability to dissolve the parliament. The role of the presidency was substantially increased with the system being sometimes referred to as "super-presidential". Its supporters argued that a stronger presidency was needed to more effectively push for reforms, while its critics denounced the concentration of power. Additionally, some international organizations such as the Council of Europe were critical of

9360-418: The autonomous Adjara region, who sent thousands of his supporters to hold a pro-governmental counter-demonstration in Tbilisi. The opposition protest reached its peak on November 22, when President Shevardnadze attempted to open the new session of parliament. This session was considered illegitimate by two of the four major opposition parties. Supporters of two of those parties, led by Saakashvili, burst into

9504-436: The case of a former Georgian parliamentarian who alleges that in the three months prior to the Rose Revolution, "Soros spent $ 42 million ramping-up for the overthrow of Shevardnadze. Among the personalities who worked for Soros' organizations who later assumed positions in the Georgian government are: Former Georgian Foreign Minister Salomé Zourabichvili wrote: These institutions were the cradle of democratization, notably

9648-523: The central streets of Tbilisi, soon involving almost all major cities and towns of Georgia in a concerted campaign of civil resistance . The " Kmara " ("Enough!") youth organization (a Georgian counterpart of the Serbian " Otpor! ") and several NGOs , like the Liberty Institute , were active in all protest activities. Shevardnadze's government was backed by Aslan Abashidze , the semi-separatist leader of

9792-403: The character of the verb). This is called the dative construction . In the past tense of the transitive verbs, and in the present tense of the verb "to know", the subject is in the ergative case. Georgian has a rich word-derivation system. By using a root, and adding some definite prefixes and suffixes, one can derive many nouns and adjectives from the root. For example, from the root - kart -,

9936-401: The corrupt institutions, it had to controversially scrap them with the likes of mandatory inspection of cars being suspended. The government further cracked down on organized crime, with it in 2005 criminalizing belonging to a criminal organization. Another achievement of the UNM government would be its more efficient tax-collecting policy. Previously, the " shadow economy " accounted for 70% of

10080-578: The country that could later coordinate protest. Foreign support for the Shevardnadze regime declined from 2000 to 2003, with notable figures outwardly calling for a more democratic transition. These included Richard Miles (the US ambassador to Georgia ), and allies of the Bush administration , including a visit from James Baker (the former U.S. Secretary of State ) who pressured Shevardnadze to accept parallel vote tabulation and pushed for free election standards. In

10224-550: The country, weak economic growth, and lack of development of public infrastructure. The 2002 local elections marked a turning point for CUG where it achieved a crushing defeat getting less than 2% in Tbilisi Sakrebulo . National Movement led by Saakashvili got a quarter of the votes in the election with him being elected the chairman of the Sakrebulo. Despite the elections held under CUG’s rule being generally viewed as fraudulent,

10368-588: The crux of the problem was the defiant separatist government and that the Ossetian people would soon rise up with the help of the Georgian state to topple it. Tbilisi government closed the Ergneti market, enacted a so-called "humanitarian offensive" with the goal of winning over the South Ossetian people, and moved its military to the region in hopes of intimidating the Tskhinvali authorities. The move, however, backfired with

10512-452: The current Mkhedruli, used for most purposes. The language has a robust grammatical framework with unique features such as syncope in morphophonology and a left-branching syntax. Georgian's vocabulary is highly derivational, allowing for diverse word formations, while its numeric system is vigesimal. No claimed genetic links between the Kartvelian languages and any other language family in

10656-462: The day before. Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Interior Minister Giorgi Baramidze negotiated with Adjaran Interior Minister Jemal Gogitidze to withdraw his forces from the administrative border at the Choloki River and led Georgian Special Forces into the region. Abashidze bowed to the inevitable, resigned in the same evening and left for Moscow . President Saakashvili visited Batumi

10800-401: The deal. This refusal proved to be controversial in the coalition with it leading to the Republican Party leaving Strength is in Unity, along with Grigol Vashadze and Salome Samadashvili, who each signed the agreement independently. Because of UNM not signing the 19 April agreement, Georgian Dream pulled out of it citing its failure "to accomplish its goals". Georgian language Georgian

10944-613: The decision to resign as president making Burjanadze, the speaker of the parliament, the new interim president. Days later, the Georgian Supreme Court declared the results as invalid. This event was later known as the Rose Revolution . Saakashvili emerged as the clear leader from the protests, with him winning an overwhelming victory in the snap 2004 presidential election , where he ran virtually uncontested. National Movement and United Democrats later merged with them forming United National Movement. The party went on to win 66.24% in

11088-513: The defection of Mikheil Saakashvili and the abdication of Zurab Zhvania from their positions in the Citizens' Union of Georgia, eventually leading to the formation of the National Movement and United Democrats opposition parties. While still the target of government harassment, Rustavi-2 continued to air anti-Shevardnadze material until 2003. This included the repeated airing of Bringing Down

11232-420: The demonstration with the government enacting a 15-day nationwide state of emergency. The move received widespread criticism both locally and abroad and it was lifted the following week. Imedi TV , opposition-leaning media, was taken off air, and protestors demanded its return which took place a month later. Saakashvili called early elections , cutting his term by a year, and stepped down as president. Burjanadze,

11376-486: The developments in Adjara, the Rose Revolution government sought to bring South Ossetia into Georgian control. Georgia and South Ossetia at the time were actively trading with each other and the people could move between the territories freely. A large part of this trade took place through the borderline Ergneti market, with it being a black market where illegal activities and smuggling had occurred. UNM believed that, as in Adjara,

11520-562: The economy with the government only collecting 10% of the GDP in public revenue, the lowest in the post-Soviet states . The bigger budget allowed the government to finance spending on road repairs, repainting the façades of buildings, and the reintroduction of free medical emergency services. UNM also implemented government reforms establishing the role of the Prime Minister and giving the President

11664-498: The following words can be derived: Kart veli ('a Georgian person'), Kart uli ('the Georgian language') and Sa kart velo ('the country of Georgia'). Most Georgian surnames end in - dze 'son' (Western Georgia), - shvili 'child' (Eastern Georgia), - ia (Western Georgia, Samegrelo ), - ani (Western Georgia, Svaneti ), - uri (Eastern Georgia), etc. The ending - eli is a particle of nobility, comparable to French de , Dutch van , German von or Polish - ski . Georgian has

11808-452: The form of unpaid salaries and pensions reached $ 120 million. Deterioration of public infrastructure was also poorly addressed by Shevardnadze's government. Georgian businesses lost an average of 110 business days per year because of failures in infrastructure (usually in the energy sector). The state was unable to repair the crumbling infrastructure or consistently enforce the law. Social conditions also further deteriorated, with over half of

11952-567: The government and host its opponents. The new government pursued economically liberal policies. Under the Shevardnadze government, Georgia already pursued free market percepts recommended by the International Monetary Fund, however, the Saakashvili administration restarted the massive privatization and accelerated all those policies. In 2004, Kakha Bendukidze , a Russian-based Georgian businessman and prominent free market advocate,

12096-414: The government began to use deceptive accounting techniques to mask budget deficiencies. Shevardnadze's government found itself both starved of funds and unable to meet IMF standards for international loans. The IMF finally suspended its own funding for Georgia in 2002. Without access to international loans, Georgia would not be able to restructure or repay its significant debts. In the period before 2003,

12240-523: The government focused on middle-level officials. This process, however, was widely criticized by international organizations, including the Council of Europe , for giving the prosecution too much arbitrary power and not following due process. Other ways of fighting corruption included disbanding the Traffic Police, which was widely known as one of the most corrupt institutions in Georgia, and replacing it with

12384-417: The group rejected the prime ministerial candidacy of Giorgi Vashadze. Vashadze's New Georgia and Tako Charkviani 's Law and Justice both left to form their own electoral bloc, Strategy Aghmashenebeli . The Strength is in Unity bloc continuously polled higher than any other opposition group and other parties sought a certain level of cooperation to avoid competition. In August, 30 opposition parties, including

12528-457: The growth rate of the Georgian economy fell. The 1998 economic crisis in Russia, Georgia's main energy provider and trade partner, put an end to Georgia's modest recovery. While there was some economic growth in 2003, a budgetary crisis weakened the state. The Georgian government's meager program of public goods and basic services had been chronically underfunded for years. By the end of 2003, debt in

12672-460: The individuals tried for Sandro Girgvliani's murder. Saakashvili continued to manage his party from abroad while accusing the Georgian government of using the legal system as a tool of political retribution. On 5 November 2014, Free Democrats announced their withdrawal from Georgian Dream coalition which led to the government losing its majority. However, by 10 November, 12 independent majoritarian MPs, initially elected under UNM but later quitting

12816-456: The key players were primarily Russia and the United States. Russia was suspected of being involved in Georgia's affairs from the beginning as it was assumed to have been involved in various coup and assassination attempts of Shevardnadze. Georgia, a state that was previously under Soviet influence, took independence in the 1990s, but saw much disarray in the form of separatist Groups, particularly those that were Russian-backed. The United States felt

12960-558: The legal protection to criticize the government, making it a leader amongst the former Eastern Bloc . Nonetheless, the government tried repeatedly to shut Rustavi-2 down. The station operated out of Tbilisi and managed to survive the regime's harassment and intimidation techniques. Rustavi-2 was partially financially supported, trained, and sometimes protected by USAID and the Eurasia Foundation, which often mobilized public and international support to prevent government interference in

13104-498: The like. This is the Georgian standard keyboard layout. The standard Windows keyboard is essentially that of manual typewriters . Georgian is an agglutinative language . Certain prefixes and suffixes can be joined in order to build a verb. In some cases, one verb can have up to eight different morphemes in it at the same time. An example is ageshenebinat ('you [all] should've built [it]'). The verb can be broken down to parts: a-g-e-shen-eb-in-a-t . Each morpheme here contributes to

13248-472: The meaning of the verb tense or the person who has performed the verb. The verb conjugation also exhibits polypersonalism ; a verb may potentially include morphemes representing both the subject and the object. In Georgian morphophonology , syncope is a common phenomenon. When a suffix (especially the plural suffix - eb -) is attached to a word that has either of the vowels a or e in the last syllable, this vowel is, in most words, lost. For example, megob

13392-527: The most significant ones being Irakli Okruashvili , the Defense Minister, leaving in 2007 and founding the Movement for United Georgia party. Okruashvili made accusations that the military had fallen to widespread corruption and that Saakashvili wanted to kill the opposition figure Badri Patarkatsishvili . Subsequently, this led to his arrest on extortion charges. He pled guilty, retracted the accusations, and

13536-789: The need for free elections. Baker proposed a formula for representation of the various parties on the electoral commissions at each level. Shevardnadze agreed, but immediately began maneuvering against the Baker formula. On 3 November the International Election Observation Mission, composed of the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), concluded that

13680-458: The new Patrol Police, which enjoyed significantly more popularity. Additionally, standardized exams were introduced with them being the only way to be admitted to the Universities. The old system had been notoriously corrupt with people often being accepted based on bribes. The new system has been widely recognized as fair. In aspects where the government felt it did not have the resources to reform

13824-426: The new chairman of parliament Davit Usupashvili preferring to persecute only specific individuals suspected of crimes. UNM emerged as the singular opposition party in the new parliament. During this time, Georgian politics shifted towards a two-party system and was marked by a confrontation between Georgian Dream and United National Movement. This confrontation shaped the identity of the two parties, with UNM becoming

13968-423: The official results demanding the government either recognize the opposition's victory or resign. Some other significant opposition forces such as Labour Party and New Rights Party chose to abstain from the protests. The opposition and the government faced off on the first session of the new parliament forcing MPs and Shevardnadze, who was delivering a speech, to leave the room. The following day, Shevardnadze made

14112-475: The opposition held further protests towards the end of 2009. As a result of the protests, the government decided to hold early local elections in May 2010 . UNM won the elections decisively getting 65.75% of the vote. On 21 May 2011 over 10,000 people protested against Saakashvili's government in Tbilisi and Batumi . Nino Burjanadze and her husband Badri Bitsadze emerged as the lead figures. Protesters tried to prevent

14256-462: The opposition leaders Saakashvili and Zurab Zhvania to discuss the situation, in a meeting arranged by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov . After the meeting, the president announced his resignation. That prompted euphoria in the streets of Tbilisi. More than 50,000 protesters celebrated the victory all night long, accompanied by fireworks and rock concerts. Following the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze, new elections were planned to bring power to

14400-416: The orders of Interior Minister  Giorgi Gakharia . It became known as Gavrilov's Night . Georgian Dream leader Ivanishvili said the protest was legitimate, but the situation was exploited by the opposition parties to storm the parliament building, thus the police measures were necessary to prevent a coup . The protests continued for months, demanding electoral reforms, snap elections, and resignations from

14544-510: The parliament, however, international observers largely deemed the results free and fair noting only isolated procedural violations and instances of fraud. 2008 saw the deterioration of relations between Russia and Georgia reaching a full diplomatic crisis by April 2008 . The crisis soon evolved into a war , first between Georgia and the Russian-backed South Ossetian separatists and later directly with Russia. On 1 August 2008,

14688-585: The party following its defeat, joined the Georgian Dream coalition, which led to its number of MPs increasing to 87 in the parliament. Thus, as a result of the crisis, Georgian Dream managed to increase its representation in the parliament by four seats. Analysts saw this as unsurprising as those independent MPs were frequently voting along with the Georgian Dream coalition, despite not being official members. Despite recruiting some new and young new and young people like Zaza Bibilashvili and Zurab Japaridze , UNM remained loyal to Saakashvili and continued to be seen as

14832-405: The party of the ex-president. This caused significant rifts within the party as many members thought that UNM had to break with its past to mount serious opposition to Georgian Dream. New Political Center — Girchi , led by Japaridze, was the first to break with the party doing so in May 2015, followed by New Georgia , led by Giorgi Vashadze , in May 2016. Both of the parties later joined State for

14976-463: The party suffered another defection with the former Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli setting up the Movement for a Fair Georgia party. Both of the defectors criticized Saakashvili’s policies pledging a "wiser approach" to Russia. In April 2009, the opposition launched daily protests calling for Saakashvili’s resignation. Even though the protests died down by the end of spring, political tensions remained and

15120-485: The political party Union of Citizens of Georgia (UCG) of the president Eduard Shevardnadze . He was elected to the parliament in 1995 soon joining the team of so-called "young reformers" within the party led by Zurab Zhvania . By the late 90s, a rift was also growing between the "young reformers" and the establishment factions in CUG. The division was intensified following the 2000 presidential election . Saakashvili, who at

15264-512: The population finding itself under the poverty line, creating even greater dissatisfaction with the Shevardnadze administration. Corruption among state officials and police, while not new, was certainly exacerbated by Georgia's lack of budget revenue. The official salary of a Georgian state minister was around 150 Lari in 1998 (approximately US$ 75). Low pay forced many state employees to turn to alternative sources of income, often involving corrupt activities. President Shevardnadze came to be seen as

15408-435: The pro-Shevardnadze bloc. The susceptibility of Shevardnadze's government and his plummeting popularity between 2000 and 2003 can partially be traced to economic problems and mismanagement. Beginning in 1998, actual national budget revenues began to fall far short of projections. In 1999, the Georgian state collected only 70% of its projected revenue, a state of affairs that would continue through 2003. To address this problem,

15552-454: The reforms and pushed for the parliament to be given equal weight to the presidency. Some progress was made in the area of democracy and human rights, although, critics highlighted systematic issues carried over from Shevardnadze’s administration. The 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections were described by OSCE-ODIHR as "the most democratic since independence". In 2005, UNM passed reforms on local governance designating Rayon (district) as

15696-703: The regime deteriorated (particularly in the West), public perceptions of Shevardnadze's political weakness increased. A significant source of funding for NGOs and election monitoring organizations came from foreign governments and individuals. The U.S. and European governments gave the OSCE ( Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe ) the funds to support foreign election observers. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)§ spent $ 1.5 million to computerize Georgia's voter rolls. The Open Society Institute (OSI), funded by George Soros, supported Mikheil Saakashvili and

15840-617: The replacement of Aramaic as the literary language . By the 11th century, Old Georgian had developed into Middle Georgian. The most famous work of this period is the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin , written by Shota Rustaveli in the 12th century. In 1629, a certain Nikoloz Cholokashvili authored the first printed books written (partially) in Georgian, the Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum cum Oratione and

15984-400: The revolution was a good opportunity to make a serious attempt in the establishment of democracy not only in Georgia, but the region it was in. The U.S. Agency for International Development was reported to have spent $ 1.5 million on modernizing Georgia's voting system. They also invested in 3,000 election observers throughout the country. One of the biggest forms of international involvement

16128-591: The ruling party in 2000. The first group to leave the CUG represented the business community and would go on to form the New Rights Party (NRP) in 2001. This began the collapse of the party, as numerous party officials and deputies defected to join or form other parties. Eduard Shevardnadze himself resigned from the chairmanship of the CUG in September 2001. Fatefully, Mikheil Saakashvili (the Minister of Justice) left

16272-400: The ruling party in September and would form the National Movement opposition party one month later. The defections continued for the next two years, and left the Citizens' Union of Georgia as a far weaker party with support clustered in a few regions, and a leadership notorious for accumulating wealth illegally through their positions in government. The disintegration of the party highlighted

16416-557: The ruling party. Despite some concessions from Georgian Dream, such as the resignation of the chairman of parliament and the partial electoral amendments, the protests did not stop. By March 2020, Strength is in Unity coalition had seen an exodus of parties with only five remaining: UNM, New Georgia, Law and Justice , the European Democrats, and the Christian Conservative Party. The alliance experienced its largest setback in July 2020 after

16560-495: The same time had served as the country’s justice minister, left CUG and established the opposition National Movement party, the predecessor to UNM. Zhvania, along with another prominent member of the "young reformers" team Nino Burjanadze also split in 2002 creating the United Democrats party. At the same time, the government’s popularity drastically decreased being attributed to its inability to exert territorial control over

16704-475: The scale of the fraud was described as not being enough to change the outcome of an election. This changed in 2003 parliamentary election which was widely viewed as fraudulent. Parallel voting tabulations had showed an overwhelming opposition victory despite the official results claiming otherwise. In the official results, National Movement achieved 18,74% of the vote winning 42 seats. National Movement and Burjanadze-Democrats organized mass rallies in protest of

16848-486: The session with roses in their hands (hence the name Rose Revolution), interrupting a speech of President Eduard Shevardnadze and forcing him to escape with his bodyguards. He later declared a state of emergency and began to mobilize troops and police near his residence in Tbilisi. However, the elite military units refused to support the government. In the evening of November 23 ( St George 's Day in Georgia), Shevardnadze met with

16992-553: The shadow and lead the political opposition against Saakashvili by uniting the opposition and mobilizing popular support. Ivanishvili first launched Georgian Dream in December 2011 as a movement and staged several mass demonstrations. On 21 February 2012, Ivanishvili announced the formation of a coalition of the same name, together with established political parties such as Republicans , Our Georgia – Free Democrats , and National Forum , pledging to increase welfare spending and to pursue

17136-427: The singular level of local governance. However, some criticized the reforms as insufficient and as "not leaving local governments enough resources to create viable institutions". The same year, UNM decriminalized defamation , making it harder to sue journalists for critical coverage. Additionally, violence against minorities was curtailed. However, during UNM’s tenure media freedom was often criticized. In January 2005,

17280-431: The speaker of the parliament, became the acting president. Saakashvili was reelected in the 2008 presidential election held on 5 January narrowly winning over 50% and avoiding a second-round. 2008 parliamentary election were held on 21 May where UNM won a landslide victory getting 59.18% and once again being the single ruling party of the country. The opposition criticized the results as illegitimate with them boycotting

17424-468: The station's reporting. The broadcasts of Rustavi-2 ended up being instrumental in building the opposition and encouraging protest. Two events in 2001 caused an outcry of public opinion against the government. In July, a popular anchor for the Rustavi-2 network, Giorgi Sanaia , was murdered. The consensus among Georgian journalists and the public was that he was killed because of his anti-government work on

17568-550: The three years before the Rose Revolution, foreign financial support for the regime began to become severely limited. Instead, foreign states and organizations gave financial assistance to NGOs and opposition parties within Georgia, worsening the desperate budget situation of the Shevardnadze government. The United States announced a reduction in aid, coinciding with a decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to suspend aid to Georgia. As international support for

17712-413: The time was led by the autocratic Aslan Abashidze government often defied the central Tbilisi authorities, however, unlike Abkhazia and South Ossetia , Abashidze did not desire full independence. In 2004, Abashidze was forced to flee after a series of mass public demonstrations , with Adjara returning to Tbilisi control. This was viewed as a major success for the government led by UNM. Encouraged by

17856-686: The virtual dictator of the autonomous region, thousands of Adjarans, mobilized by the United National Movement and Kmara , protested against Abashidze's policy of separatism and militarization. Abashidze used security forces and paramilitary groups to break up the demonstrations in the streets of Batumi and Kobuleti. However, he failed to suppress the protests, and they grew in size and scope. On May 6, 2004 (again St George 's Day), protesters from all Ajara gathered in Batumi despite being dispersed by force

18000-442: The vote compared to Zourabichvili's 40.48%. After a stronger-than-expected performance from the opposition, Ivanishvili put together a scheme in which the debts of 600,000 Georgians would be written off and covered by his charity, in an attempt to secure Zourabichvili's victory. It was considered "an unprecedented case of vote-bribing". The government supported scheme was enough to boost Georgian Dream's popularity and give Zourabichvili

18144-412: The war, 20,272 people, mostly ethnic Georgians, remained displaced as of 2014. The opposition heavily criticized Saakashvili’s handling of the war and accused him of dragging Georgia into a war it could not win. UNM suffered several defections, with Nino Burjanadze leaving the position of the speaker of the parliament and founding the opposition Democratic Movement–United Georgia party. In December 2008,

18288-481: The weakness of the Shevardnadze regime and dispersed the political elite amongst a number of new parties and independent platforms. The collapse of the Citizens' Union of Georgia and more apparent public discontent with Shevardnadze allowed for the formation of numerous new parties after 2000. The ruling party showed its vulnerability in the 2002 local elections, losing decisively to independents and new parties. The local elections saw independents secure 2754 seats, with

18432-416: The withdrawal of Nino Burjanadze into opposition eventually established the United National Movement as the single ruling party. The next change of power in Georgia was brought by the 2012 Georgian parliamentary election . The Rose Revolution is considered one of the early examples of colour revolutions . It was marked by strong role of non-governmental organizations and student activism . The role of

18576-399: The world are accepted in mainstream linguistics. Among the Kartvelian languages, Georgian is most closely related to the so-called Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ); glottochronological studies indicate that it split from the latter approximately 2700 years ago. Svan is a more distant relative that split off much earlier, perhaps 4000 years ago. Standard Georgian is largely based on

18720-552: The youngest European president at the age of 36. On March 28, 2004, new parliamentary elections were held, with a large majority won by the Saakashvili-supporting National Movement - Democrats , and a minority representation of the Rightist Opposition . After being elected, Saakashvili wasted no time in passing a series of legislation and reforms. Criticized as being very "pro-western," his agenda

18864-528: Was a nonviolent change of power that occurred in Georgia in November 2003. The event was brought about by widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections and culminated in the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze , which marked the end of the Soviet era leadership in the country. The revolution derives its name from the climactic moment, when demonstrators led by Mikheil Saakashvili stormed

19008-407: Was a denigration of Georgian sovereignty and completely unacceptable that Gavrilov presided over a session in Georgian parliament, as a representative of the occupying power with a history of casting anti-Georgia votes. The opposition, including UNM, called for protests in front of the parliament building. That same day, a large protest took place in front of Parliament, which was violently dispersed by

19152-457: Was able to improve the country's economy and launch a new anti-corruption campaign. He was able to bring the country's rating according to the World Bank from 122nd to 18th in the world by expanding the banking sector by 40 percent, increasing foreign investment to $ 3 billion, and maintaining an annual growth of 9.5%. Many countries watched Georgia transition from an autocracy to a democracy, but

19296-465: Was appointed by Saakashvili as a Minister of Economics. In 2004, Bendukidze notoriously said he would "sell everything but Georgia’s conscience" with his goal being closing down his own ministry and demolishing all economic regulation by the state. Bendukidze implemented radical tax system reforms. Under him, a flat 12% tax rate was introduced with the overall number of taxes being reduced from 21 taxes to 6. Additionally, rapid privatization of state assets

19440-519: Was heavily affected by the formation of EG, which garnered 10.4% of the vote. Ahead of the 2018 presidential election , UNM formed the Strength is in Unity coalition with it nominating Grigol Vashadze as the joint presidential candidate. The alliance included UNM as well as nine other parties including For a New Georgia, Serve Georgia, the National Democratic Party , State for the People ,

19584-411: Was held simultaneously, it won 34% and was the only opposition group to win seats in the autonomous republic's legislature . However, SU joined other political parties in refusing to recognize the electoral results after allegations of voter fraud surfaced, boycotting majoritarian runoffs and entering either the parliament or the Supreme Council of Adjara. However, one of its elected members in Adjara from

19728-454: Was implemented, and Georgia's economy was opened to foreign investment and global markets with few restrictions or regulations. Supporters of Bendukidze praise the rapid economic growth and business-friendly environment that was created due to his reforms, while his detractors point out the unequal distribution of that growth among the population. The Saakashvili administration pushed liberal social policy reforms, which put it in discord with

19872-413: Was not prepared to relinquish power voluntarily, and that other ways to remove him from power might be necessary. Some of these leaders hoped to make the 'Serbian scenario' a reality in Georgia, in the sense that they wanted to promote non-violent protests to force the resignation of an authoritarian leader. Before the Rose Revolution, a large network of NGOs with foreign financial support already existed in

20016-483: Was relatively low, they were ultimately successful in mobilizing the population to play a more active role in government. Two of the most important were the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and the Liberty Institute , both of which were active in the promotion of human rights and freedom of information legislation before the Rose Revolution. Shevardnadze had allowed the development of NGOs before

20160-495: Was released on bail after which he left the country. The opposition claimed that he retracted the statements and admitted guilt based on threats and coercion. In late 2007, The opposition subsequently organized protests with around 50,000 people gathering in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi on 2 November calling for Saakashvili's resignation, The protests continued until November 7, when riot police were deployed to disperse

20304-591: Was responsible for the overthrow of Shevardnadze. Many non-governmental organizations from the U.S. were in Georgia actively educating the people on human rights and the ideals of democracy. Also, the U.S. Ambassador in Georgia at the time, Richard Miles, was also the U.S. Ambassador in Belgrade from 1996 to 1999. In May 2004, the so-called "Second Rose Revolution" took place in Batumi , Adjara . After months of extreme tension between Saakashvili's government and Aslan Abashidze ,

20448-412: Was then put in the ballot box. This was not a presidential election; that was set to occur in the spring of 2005, at the expiration of President Shevardnadze's second and final term. In July 2003, U.S. president George W. Bush sent former secretary of state James Baker to meet with both opposition leaders and President Shevardnadze. To the latter, Baker delivered a letter from Bush sternly stressing

20592-399: Was understood to be a key trial before the 2005 presidential election. However, President Shevardnadze's popularity rating had plummeted to around 5%, undermining any attempt to revive the CUG under his leadership. The new CUG further found itself divided over internal disputes, and lacking effective leadership to replace those that had defected. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played

20736-511: Was with George Soros and the Open Society Foundation located in the United States. A non-governmental organization whose mission is to promote democracy, human rights, and reform in various areas, such as the economy helped in the making of Kmara, a student movement that was brought to Serbia by the foundation to get insight for the resistance, particularly training in non-violent methods of protest. Translating as "Enough," it resembled

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