Speaker of Georgian Parliament condemns street protest at Deputy Speaker’s home

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has strongly condemned what he described as an act of “street terror,” allegedly organized by NGOs and encouraged by international donors. According to Papuashvili, a group of protesters gathered outside the home of Deputy Speaker Tea Tsulukiani at 2 am, where she resides with her young child.

In a statement published on social media, Papuashvili claimed that this incident marks the peak of “disgusting street terror,” following the ”violence” that took place on April 9. He accused the demonstrators of employing Soviet-style intimidation tactics, drawing a parallel to “Rodionovs” — a reference to repressive figures in Georgian history.

“For the third day in a row, international donors who support this terror have not found it necessary to respond, condemn, or distance themselves from it — not even out of respect for the Georgian public,” Papuashvili wrote.

He further emphasized that such midnight confrontations, especially in the presence of children, mirror the testimonies being heard in the ongoing parliamentary investigation led by Tsulukiani into past instances of alleged coercion and abuse.

Calling the demonstrators “orcs marching in the name of Europe,” Papuashvili warned that those who aim to seize power from outside the country will spare no one — “neither women nor men, neither children nor the elderly.”

The demonstrators organized a spontaneous protest after Tea Tsulukiani referred to Georgia’s national hero, Giorgi Antsukhelidze, as “senselessly sacrificed for someone’s PR” during a broadcast on the Public Broadcaster on the evening of April 11.