German Ambassador rejects Soviet comparisons, affirms EU and Germany as Georgia’s friends

German Ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, has firmly rejected comparisons between the European Union or Germany and the Soviet Union, calling them misleading and incorrect. His statement was made in response to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s April 9 Facebook post, which referenced “foreign forces” acting violently on Rustaveli Avenue, without explicitly mentioning Russia’s role in the 1989 tragedy.

Ambassador Fischer commemorated the victims of April 9 by laying a wreath at the memorial on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, honoring the demonstrators who were killed by Soviet troops during a peaceful protest for freedom and democracy.

In a post on social media platform X, Fischer emphasized that both East Germans and Georgians protested for the same values in 1989, and noted the fall of the Berlin Wall later that year. He stressed that likening today’s European allies to the Soviet regime is both historically inaccurate and politically harmful. “We are friends of Georgia, not a hostile foreign power,” he wrote, adding that any sincere Georgian understands this truth from the past 30 years of partnership and support.