Young Georgians Vow To Continue Tbilisi Protests
Young Georgians Vow To Continue Tbilisi Protests
And cast ballots in October's parliamentary elections as well
Nata Aspanidze has been protesting in the streets of Tbilisi for more than two weeks, since the ruling government of her country introduced a controversial foreign agent bill that she and many critics say mimics the repressive anti-civil society law that has all but wiped any semblance of pro-democracy organizations in Russia.
Aspanidze, 26, told me she doesn’t want her country to experience a similar fate.
“We are fighting to defend our country against Russia,” she said. “It is very simple. Regardless of how complex of an argument politicians say, we have a choice: We either go back to Russia (or to Europe). I remember what it was like being a post-Soviet country and how horrible that was. I don't want to go back there.”
The past two weeks have been a defining moment for Georgians, whose government functions as a pro-Russia satellite state, but electorate is overwhelmingly pro-European. Most of the people protesting are young people like Aspanidze: many under 30-years-old, little to no memory of the Soviet Union their parents were born into and progressive politics that don’t mirror the conservative, anti-Europe messaging of GD.
Aspanidze, like many young people protesting this bill, have been attacked by riot police and masked thugs, targeted with water cannons and rubber bullets and threatened via robo calls to their cell phones from foreign numbers. Georgia’s interior minister has threatened protesters with four years of jail time.
None of this is discouraging people from protesting.
Today, thousands of Georgian university students have walked out of class in a show of opposition to the bill. What little western media that has focused on the protests have discussed NGOs and independent media. But the younger Georgians I have spoken to told me the ambiguous language of the legislation has caused fears their opportunities to study abroad could be threatened.
“Students are protesting because they are at risk of not being able to participate in exchange programs, which are funded by Europe and America,” Nini Jinkhadze, 22, told me. “There won't be any workshops training from foreign peoples. And also we want to be able to get grants for our startups, for technologies, and also for science and art. So it's very important for the youth. That's why we're standing ( at parliament) almost every day.”
During a my recent Twitter Space about the protests, Eto Buziashvili of Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab said that young people have been especially targeted with disinformation on tiktok and other social media platforms. Tamta Muradashvili, who works for independent Mtaravi Channel and was also on the Space, said her network would refuse to agree to the terms of the foreign agent law and go digital. But she feared the government would crack down on media there as well, making one of the few places where young people and other demographics get their news inaccessible as well.
Young voters between the ages of 18-35 have not historically turned out in large numbers to vote in Georgian elections, according to the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP). Though this isn’t a problem germane to Georgia, available polling shows there are some specific factors at play. Young voters in this age group are forming their own political views and, unlike their parents and grandparents, they are challenged with navigating a very unstable political environment where alternative voting choices are hard to pinpoint.
Here’s another key point GIP cites as a reason for the dearth of youth voter participation:
Structural hardships which limit voting are even more expressed when it comes to young people living in the regions. Infrastructural or economic challenges restrain them from having adequate access to the centralized political processes in the country. Georgia is a capital-oriented state and the key political and social positions are mainly concentrated in Tbilisi. The majority of young people living in the regions come to Tbilisi to participate in higher education. As a result, they become not only separated from their local political context, but their voting procedure becomes logistically inconvenient, as in most cases they need to return to the regions to vote in each round of elections.
Gocha DachiImedadze, 22, a member of the civil society group Shame Movement, told me that even if this bill ends up becoming law (most observers think it will), younger people will be engaged to go to the ballot box in this year’s parliamentary elections because the stakes are high for them. They fear losing access to funding that helps them study abroad or taking trips to Europe, where they take advantage of professional development programs foreign money finances in Georgia.
DachiImedadze added that many young people are eager to vote for opposition parties—no matter how messy they’ve been over the years.
“Well, of course, the opposition are not perfect, he said. “They're shit basically. But we have a bigger problem. We got to unite and then stand for the country, not for a particular party. So that's going to be our message. This is about whether Georgia goes to Europe or whether it goes back to Russia. So the future against the past, Europe against Russia. That's the framing that the young people and everyone in this country respond to because it's crystal clear.”
I recently reported on the Georgian opposition parties and their efforts to form a cohesive pro-European message that will provide the electorate options in this October’s elections. Several of the opposition leaders I spoke with said they are looking to young voters to help them push Georgia Dream out of the parliament. They all acknowledge their divisive behavior has turned off voters, but feel these protests have made the different factions come together for the benefit of the country.
One thing is certain: the opposition have equally been targeted with violence as they oppose the foreign agent bill. News reports show images of opposition members severely beaten and bruised. Young protesters I have interviewed on Black Diplomats podcast and for Black Diplomats newsletter tell me they have seen these violent attacks and have inhaled tear gas fired at them.
Aspanidze told me the more violence their government directs at them, the more they will resist their aggression until they resign.
“All we can do is show them our resolve and show them that we're doing this for the right cause,” she said. “We're not going to be violent. We're not going to follow their provocations and show them what they want to see because we're not violent. We are just patriotic people who are fighting for our country.