Thousands protest in Tbilisi as Georgia halts EU talks, sparking clashes with police. Accusations of election fraud, mass resignations, and global condemnation deepen the crisis in the pro-Western nation.
TBILISI (Reuters) -Many thousands of demonstrators gathered late on Saturday in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, building barricades, breaking windows and setting off fireworks outside parliament, in protest against the government which called off talks to join the EU.
Riot police responded by firing water cannon and tear gas into the crowds.
The demonstrations were by far the biggest since the increasingly anti-Western ruling party was re-elected last month in a vote the pro-EU opposition says was rigged.
At one point a small fire broke out in the parliament building, possibly caused by a firework. Protesters burned an effigy of Georgia's richest man, the ruling party's founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, on the steps of parliament.
Georgian media reported other protests in towns and cities throughout the country.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused the pro-EU opposition of plotting a revolution. The State Security Service said political parties were attempting to "overthrow the government by force".
The country, long one of the most staunchly pro-Western states to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union but lately drawn closer into Moscow's orbit, was thrown into crisis on Thursday, when the ruling Georgian Dream party said it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years. It accused the EU of blackmailing Georgia.
EU membership is overwhelmingly popular in Georgia, which has the aim of joining the bloc enshrined in its constitution.
Standing outside the parliament building in the capital, where flags of the EU and Georgia hung side by side, protester Tina Kupreishvili said she wanted Georgia to uphold its constitutional commitment to joining the EU.
"The people of Georgia are trying to protect their constitution, trying to protect their country and the state, and they are trying to tell our government that rule of law means everything," she told Reuters.
PRESIDENT SAYS SHE WILL NOT STEP DOWN
President Salome Zourabichvili, who opposes the government and supports EU membership but whose powers are mainly ceremonial, said she would not leave office when her term ends next month, because the new parliament was illegitimate and had no authority to name her successor.
Georgian Dream won almost 54% of the vote in the Oct. 26 election, defeating an opposition that says the vote was rigged. Both the ruling party and Georgia's electoral commission say the election was free and fair. Western countries have called for an investigation.
The ruling party campaigned on keeping the country at peace, and accuses the opposition of trying to draw Georgia into war with Russia on behalf of the West.
Prime Minister Kobakhidze accused opponents of the halt to EU accession of plotting a revolt, along the lines of Ukraine's 2014 Maidan protest, which ousted a pro-Russian president.
"Some people want a repeat of that scenario in Georgia. But there will be no Maidan in Georgia," Kobakhidze said.
Georgian media reported that the country's most senior diplomats in the United States, Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania had resigned in protest at the halt to EU talks.
Over 200 serving diplomats signed an open letter condemning the government's stance. Hundreds of employees at Georgia's defence, justice and education ministries, and at the central bank, have also signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze EU accession talks.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had detained 107 people in the capital, Tbilisi, during a protest on Friday night which saw demonstrators build barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue and hurl fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and teargas to disperse them.
Footage of security forces violently arresting protesters circulated widely on Saturday. Georgia's ombudsman said that police "brutality" against protesters had been "disturbing". The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it was "deeply concerned".
Major businesses, including the London-listed banks TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia stated their support for EU accession. The country's powerful Orthodox Church issued a statement condemning violence at protests.
FOOTBALL STAR SPEAKS OUT
The EU has said it deeply regrets the government's move. The U.S. State Department said on Saturday that it was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia in response.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a star of Georgia's national soccer team who plays for Napoli in Italy's Serie A, spoke out in favour of the protesters.
"My country hurts, my people hurt - it's painful and emotional to watch the videos that are circulating, stop the violence and aggression! Georgia deserves Europe today more than ever!" Kvaratskhelia wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
The halt to EU accession caps months of deteriorating relations between Georgian Dream and the West.
The EU had already said Georgia's application was stalled over laws requiring groups that receive funding from abroad to register as foreign agents, and laws on LGBTQ+ rights that it has described as draconian.
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