Ruling party head to attack on professor for critical comments on king: violence unacceptable, but

Violence is unacceptable, but we must also call on everyone not to contribute to inciting conflicts in public. A person who enjoys the status of a professor should not go out and curse our kings, Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said on Tuesday, in comments on an attack on professor Levan Berdzenishvili in central Tbilisi earlier today for his last year’s critical comment on the 18th century king Erekle II, who in 1783 signed a treaty with Russians which the latter later used to exert control on the country. 

 

Berdzenishvili, who has several times faced backlash for the comments, on Tuesday said an individual approached him after lectures, insured him and threw an egg, which he said hit his car. 

 

The domestic opposition and the representatives of civil society groups have accused the government of inciting violence and attempts to “demonize” all thinkers in the country, who were protesting their actions. 

 

“If we are dealing with violence, violence is unacceptable. I want to repeat one thing, that there are people in Georgia who do everything to add to polarization, incite radicalism, sow aggression, and also directly oppose everything related to our national identity, directly fight against the Church, the Patriarch”, Kobakhidze said. 

 

In his comments last year, Berdzenishvili said “until King Erekle is declared a traitor, prime minister Irakli Garibashvili will come out and say – do you want a war? Erekle said the same”. “Who gave him [the king] the right to hand over the whole of Georgia to Russia?!” 

 

Berdzenishvili’s comments were allegedly in reference to the current government’s stance on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and its claims on “saving the country” from a war with Russia.