The editor-in-chief of GRUZINFORM, Arno Khidirbegishvili, believes that the change of power in Georgia may be beneficial not only for Ukraine, but also for neighbouring Turkey.
In my publications and at a press conference at Sputnik Georgia, I have repeatedly stated that Ukraine, in duet with the Georgian opposition, is preparing a special operation in Georgia to overthrow the government (the government of Prime Minister Garibashvili and the ruling Georgian Dream party founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili).
To clarify: the plan of the special operation combines elements of a military coup (like the military putsch of 1991-1992, the “Tbilisi War”) and a “colour revolution” (in its “velvet” form, like the “Rose Revolution” in Tbilisi in 2003, or in its hardcore form, like the “Euromaidan” in Kiev in 2013). The difference is that foreign military intervention this time will not be limited to providing arms to local putschists, as in the overthrow of President Gamsakhurdia: a mixed Ukrainian commando will land in Georgia – Mamulashvili’s Georgian Legion, the Azov battalion* and, not excluded, special units of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The person responsible for ensuring the special operation from the Ukrainian side is David Arahamia, the new leader chosen for Georgia by the collective West. He is tasked with integrating Georgia with Ukraine with the support of the united Georgian radial opposition, placing it under its protectorate so that it does not fall under Russia’s control. The person in charge of preparing the special operation from the Georgian side is Nika Gvaramia, a contact person who is supposed to unite the Georgian radical opposition, given his media capabilities. Gvaramia has already been cast in Europe, where he flew immediately after his pardon, and then to Ukraine.
I repeat: both Ukrainian and Georgian sides are hoping for support from the collective West, primarily the United States, which is pursuing its own goal: to replace the current Georgian government, which is not joining the anti-Russian sanctions and is developing trade, economic and transport relations with Russia. The United States needs to take full control of the geopolitically strategic territory of the South Caucasus, through which transit transport routes and trunk pipelines run from North to South and from East to West, from China to Europe, from Russia to India.
The goals of the Kiev authorities are:
– to replace the current Georgian government, which does not open a “second front” against Russia and does not provide Ukraine with military support;
– to compensate for the failure of the counter-offensive in Ukraine with a successful special operation to overthrow the “pro-Russian” Georgian government;
– to force the collective West, which humiliated Ukraine at the NATO summit in Vilnius, to provide Ukraine with twice as many weapons, since Ukraine will now undertake the mission of liberating from Russia not only its own territories, but also the territories of Georgia, where Russian military bases are stationed.
The goal of the Georgian radical opposition is to come to power in Georgia by means of a coup d’état, because the opposition is not able to realise this goal legally, through elections next year, without the electorate, even if they unite.
Since the above-mentioned goals of the West and its henchmen in the face of the Kiev authorities and the Georgian opposition are illegal, the release of ex-president Saakashvili – a citizen of Ukraine, “a great reformer and a beacon of democracy”, “Putin’s personal prisoner, who is being killed by the pro-Russian authorities of Georgia” is declared as a pretext. In reality, neither the Ukrainian nor the Georgian side needs Saakashvili: for the new leaders Arakhamia and Gvaramia, who publicise themselves as refugees from Abkhazia who suffered from Russia, the living Saakashvili is only a compromise, both because he has various crimes behind him, including crimes against humanity and his own people; and because the ambitious Saakashvili knows that he has been killed by the Russian government.
Without false modesty, I would like to note that the predictions made in Sputnik Georgia are beginning to materialise: “Zelensky was counting not only on US assistance in developing the plan of special operation. Turkey, which has its own considerations regarding the Adjara and “Crimean” autonomy, can actively assist the combined military coup d’état in Georgia, allegedly provoked by the “colour revolution”.
And on 18 July, the aforementioned Gvaramia fully confirmed the forecast about the Ukrainian special operation in Georgia under the pretext of Saakashvili’s release and Turkey’s active participation in it!
“The key to the rescue of Mikheil Saakashvili is in Ukraine. I want to look at this story from the other side. I want our neighbours in the region – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey – to say their word on the issue of Saakashvili’s rescue. I am sure that these countries are concerned about the situation of Mikheil Saakashvili and should say their word!” – said Gvaramia in his speech at the forum of support for Mikheil Saakashvili in Kiev.
I don’t know about Armenia and Azerbaijan, but there is no doubt that Turkey will help “save” the son of Turkicologist Giuli Alasania, even though Erdogan’s enemy, preacher Gulen, loved her. At the very least, Turkey will be no less active and interested, as in securing the “grain deal”.
No, Saakashvili as a person is of no value to Erdogan, but it was thanks to him when he was president of Georgia and his mother, who owned and supervised numerous Turkish educational institutions in Georgia, that economic, religious and cultural Turkish expansion began in Georgia, especially in Adjara.
Hotels, restaurants, bars, casinos and shops, madrasas and mosques – Batumi, which is awakened by the voice of the muezzin from the mosque, is today difficult to distinguish from a Turkish city, because according to Erdogan’s public confession, “in the Turkish heart Batum is inseparable from Rize”. And then there is the plan of the Turkish General Staff, maps in Turkish history textbooks and the Treaty of Kars.
“Georgian Dream” will never give Adjara to Turkey. So why not help bring the “National Movement” back to power! – argues Erdogan, who, having helped Saakashvili and Zelensky, will be rewarded not only with Adjara, but also with Crimean autonomy! After all, 300 thousand Crimean Tatars are still demanding to form “Crimean Tatar autonomy”, with what Kiev agrees and Moscow does not agree. They even appealed to US President Obama with this request, and today their intercessor is Turkish President Erdogan. After Turkey recently made its choice in favour of NATO and the US, the Crimean Tatars, who have always been oriented towards Erdogan, will follow the fairway of Ankara’s policy.
Erdogan is elated with his first victory, when thanks to Turkey the Karabakh conflict was finalised, and today Turkey has practically pushed Russia out of the process. After all, Nikol Pashinyan, as they say, on advice from Ankara, was “too late” to seek help from Russia, although he could have saved 5,000 lives – not only Armenians, but also Azerbaijanis. And then Pashinyan unexpectedly acknowledged the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, making the presence of Russian peacekeepers ridiculous, because such realities were not taken into account by the Statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of 9 November 2020.
In Georgia and Russia, the 180-degree turn in Turkey’s foreign policy has caused a shock, although I remind you that in publications on Sputnik Georgia, even before the presidential elections, your humble servant wrote that “Turkey is a member of NATO and will always fulfil what NATO orders”. This is what happened at the Vilnius NATO summit, when Turkey supported Ukraine’s accession to NATO, agreed to Sweden’s accession to the alliance, and made a sharply anti-Russian statement endorsing “NATO enlargement as a guarantor of peace and stability in the world”.
That’s why I expressed my respect to Prime Minister Garibashvili who refrained from playing on the same “Caucasus platform” with unreliable Turkey – Erdogan’s 3+3 initiative, or rather provocation, which, as it turns out today, had far-reaching goals! And in general, can Georgia hope for Erdogan, who (quotes from the publication) “in gratitude” to Putin, who recently offered Erdogan to turn Turkey into an energy hub supplying Europe with hydrocarbons, broke his promise to Moscow and handed over to Zelensky the captured Azov commanders, who are already at the front killing Russians again? Can we believe Erdogan, whom Putin saved from certain death by informing that rebels were flying at his soul in a helicopter, and Erdogan gave an order to shoot down a Russian front-line bomber, which was carried out near the Turkish-Russian border, where a Russian pilot was killed? Can we believe Erdogan, who flew to Moscow to apologise to Putin and called him a brother, and since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine has been supplying Kiev neo-Nazis with Bayraktars, about which Ukrainians have even composed songs?! Moreover, Turkey is even building a factory in Ukraine to produce these drones! And the Turkish version of the murder of Russian Ambassador Karlov also sounds very unconvincing.
Now let someone give me one reason why Zelensky, who is at war with a nuclear superpower and is armed by the entire West; or Erdogan, who has imprisoned hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens, declaring them accomplices of Fethullah Gulen; who bombs Syria whenever he pleases, despite the presence of the Russian army, the official defender of Damascus; who ends the Karabakh conflict, which has lasted 30 years, in a month, despite the fact that Armenia, Russia’s strategic ally in the CSTO, is afraid to change power in Georgia in the American style? ! That is, by force, and even fulfil the “noble mission of releasing the prisoner of conscience – political prisoner Saakashvili, who is being “killed by the pro-Russian government”.
Arno Khidirbegishvili, Sputnik Georgia
* Terrorist organisation banned in Russia
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel