Ruling party MP calls outgoing US Ambassador “harmful”, accuses her of creating “revolutionary waves”

Irakli Zarkua, an MP of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday called Kelly Degnan, the outgoing United States Ambassador to Georgia, “harmful”, who he said had “failed” to act as an Ambassador and accused her of creating “revolutionary waves” in the country while in office. 

 

Zarkua claimed Degnan had been “one of the initiators” of potential revolutions in the country, which he said the current Georgian Dream authorities had been able to evade “three or four times”. 

 

He added Degnan had acted as a “representative of a domestic opposition party” (allegedly referring to the United National Movement) and “further deepened political polarization”. 

 

Zarkua highlighted “revolutions and chaos, as well as dragging Georgia into the [Russia-Ukraine] war, were not in the interests of the Georgian people”, and that the Government had acted “in accordance with national interests”. 

 

“I had attempted to say nice farewell words, but it’s a pity it happened that way. So, goodbye my darling”, Zarkua said. 

 

In her final messages for Radio Liberty, the diplomat urged the Georgian people to “come out and vote. Make sure your voice is heard and your choice is counted”. 

 

“A long-term monitoring mission is also important, because wrong things don’t just happen on election day, in fact they happen months before: people are intimidated, votes are bribed, people are threatened with losing their jobs if they don’t vote the way they should”, Degnan said. 

 

“No one has claimed that the 2020 elections were fair, and no one has claimed that the 2021 municipal elections were fair either. It’s sad and I hope the 2024 elections will be better,” she added. 

 

The Ambassador also noted politicians were telling “what they have to say”, even when they knew their words “were not true”.