Fear of police violence and deportation: the Georgia protests from a Swiss perspective

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Swiss citizens and Swiss-Georgians are also taking part in the demonstrations against the Georgian government. Some fear they could be deported; one person withdrew their statements to SWI swissinfo.ch as a result.

Swiss cheesemaker and filmmaker Frances Besler lives in the capital Tbilisi. She spends the summer months high in the Georgian mountain pastures with her husband. Despite the major protests rocking the country, business orders keep flowing in. “We’ve been producing Swiss cheese here for nine years and people still want to buy it. Georgians and Russians alike. Cheese knows no nationality,” she says.

Cheesemaker and filmmaker Frances Besler. zVg

Besler is taking active part in the protests in Tbilisi. The demonstrations against the Georgian government began after contested elections and the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.

As well as producing cheese, Besler is involved in filming for a documentary project that has been running for four years. “Some of the protagonists have since had to leave the country,” she says, as the legal situation of LGBTQ+ people has deteriorated significantly.
 
“Wherever you go now, there are police checks. The wave of arrests is a strategy to stifle the opposition. The aggression knows no bounds. On both sides,” Besler says. “The government calls us liberal fascists. But Bidzina Ivanishvili [the strongman of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party] is an oligarch.”  Besler wants to see an end to corruption and to know where her taxes are going. She is also critical of Ivanishvili’s huge construction projects in Tbilisi.

Could Switzerland mediate?

Seeing the brutal violence used against the demonstrators, Besler is calling for police reform – as happened after the mass protests in 2007, the year she and her husband first came to Georgia. She is convinced that their homeland, Switzerland, could now act as a mediator.

But the time for mediation in Georgia still seems a long way off. Outgoing president Salome Zourabishvili, the strongest voice of the opposition, is being replaced by the newly elected Mikheil Kavelashvili – a former footballer who once played for Swiss clubs such as FC Zurich and FC Basel.

Zourabishvili, whose term of office ended on December 16, does not want to step down. For the first time, the president was elected by parliament and not by the people. However, because of electoral fraud Zourabishvili considers this parliament to be illegitimate and therefore unable to elect the president, as she said in a video message.

After the parliamentary elections in late October, she described Georgia as the “victim of a Russian special operation”. She enjoys considerable support among the demonstrators. International observers have also reported massive violations during the elections.

Growing wave of protests

Even before the elections, the Georgian-Swiss musician Alexandre Kordzaia – also known as Kordz – spoke to SWI swissinfo.ch about how the political climate in Georgia was changing.

Kordz also sees the direct influence of Russia in the current protests and likens the situation to Ukraine in 2014. “Like in Ukraine back then, there are propagandists on television who claim that the protestors are right-wing extremists and on drugs.”

The fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria is a major defeat for Russia which gives hope to many Georgians on the streets, Kordz says. More and more people will gradually be joining the protests, he believes.

The Georgian-Swiss musician Alexandre Kordzaia. Nata Sopromadze

Instead of going to concerts, these days the musician attends court hearings, to support colleagues from the art scene who have been arrested during the demonstrations. “Almost everyone is cancelling their performances – except those musicians who are close to the ruling party. Someone still has to play the Christmas music at their parties.”

Like many others, Kordz is calling for new elections within the next few months, neutral election monitoring, the resignation of the prime minister and the repeal of the “foreign agents” law, under which NGOs that receive funding from abroad must register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.

During the demonstrations, Kordz uses microphones to record the sound of the protests. He has already produced a protest anthem.

Novelist now only writes her diary

Swiss author Anja Schmitter was working on a novel in Georgia when the demonstrations started. “I was making good progress and completely wrapped up in my writing,” she tells SWI swissinfo.ch over the phone. After months of shuttling between Zurich and Tbilisi, in early November she had finally moved to the Georgian capital, where she now lives with her partner not far from the parliament building.

It is here that people have been gathering every evening since November 28 to protest against the pro-Russian government. Shortly after the controversial parliamentary elections, the government decided to suspend European Union accession talks.

Since then, Schmitter has taken a break from her work. “I can’t write anything other than my diary,” says the author, who takes part in the protests every day and is out until late at night.

“In any case, I can hear the fireworks, the water cannon, the commotion from my flat.” It’s as if life had come to a standstill. “As a Swiss citizen, I am in a privileged position. I always have a ticket to get out of the country,” Schmitter says.

Swiss author Anja Schmitter. zVg

Are foreign protesters at risk of deportation?

That said, anyone can fall victim to the increasing violence of the special forces, she adds. There are also rumours that foreigners who take part in the protests will be deported. “That scares me. But I won’t let myself be browbeaten.”
 
Schmitter doesn’t see her own future in the country as being directly at risk – “unless Russia intervenes militarily”.
 
Schmitter is not the only non-Georgian participating in the protests who is worried.
 
According to a reportExternal link by Georgian human rights organisation Social Justice Centre, foreign nationals who were detained during the protests were summoned by the Interior Ministry’s migration department, and one person who responded to the summons was expelled from the country. In the wake of this, a protester who had spoken to SWI swissinfo.ch asked to withdraw their statements.
 
For none of those taking part in the protests want to leave Georgia at the moment, as many people who have spoken to SWI swissinfo.ch emphasise. On the contrary, they say: at the demonstrations there are now many Georgians who have returned home from abroad “to defend their country against Russian aggression”.

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl. Adapted from German by Julia Bassam/ts

Editiert von Benjamin von Wyl