Leaders of the opposition Georgian Party, launched in October and led by former public defender Sozar Subari, say that revolution will be inevitable in Georgia if President Saakashvili refuses to soften his grip on power.

“Will we have to carry out a revolution or will we be able to carry out [changes] through elections? That is a question on which Saakashvili has to give an answer, meaning will Saakashvili give up [control over] justice system, media, political police and stop terrorizing business and will he set electoral environment free? If his answer is ‘No’, then only one mean becomes available for us – mounting political and people’s pressure on this regime in order to make it go as soon as possible,” Erosi Kitsmarishvili, the Georgian Party’s political secretary, told the party activists on March 1.

Apart of Sozar Subari and Erosi Kitsmarishvili, who is Georgia’s former ambassador to Russia, the party was co-founded by several high-profile opposition figures, including exiled ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili and Levan Gachechiladze, an opposition presidential candidate in 2008 elections.

Speaking at the same meeting with the party activists on March 1, Levan Gachechiladze said that revolution would be inevitable if the authorities fail to carry out real changes and the Georgian Party would be in the forefront of this process. He also said that the process similar to those in Egypt might take place “very soon” in Georgia too.

Koka Guntsadze, one of co-founder of the party and its secretary general, said at the same meeting: “People are waiting for changes and we should fall this regime into pieces at any cost and we should put this country on the path of irreversible progress.”

In recent months the Georgian Party has been establishing its regional branches throughout the country. Levan Gachechiladze described this process of building party infrastructure as “building of political army to win the battle.”
 
Kitsmarishvili said that the party was moving on next stage of its development involving holding of congresses of regional branches “to foster active engagement with the party activists.”