Opposition Girchi Party Falling Apart: Disagreement between the Leaders

Zurab Japaridze, the leader of the opposition political party Girchi, says that he is no longer going to collaborate with other leaders of the party Iago Khvichia, Vakhtang Megrelishvili and Alexander Rakviashvili.

"Unfortunately, on the one hand, mine, and on the other hand, the roads of Iago, Vakho and Sandro were divided. I'm not going to do the 'Girchi' with them anymore. For many reasons, but not because of the content of Iago's statement," Japaridze wrote in the private group of the Party on the morning of December 4.

The previous day, Japaridze responded to Iago Khvichia's statement regarding child pornography. Khvichia wrote on Facebook after a citizen's arrest by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for purchasing and consuming child pornography: "So? One downloaded, saved, and decided to use it once, and was arrested? They went crazy."

Japaridze said, after several days of silence, that Khvichia's statement was "wrong" but "not because of the content."

He now claims he is not going to speak publicly about the reasons for the party's split.

"I am not going to talk about the reasons publicly. Unfortunately, such things happen in life. I wish good luck to all three, I believe they can do a lot of good things. I apologize to everyone for that, I am well aware that the whole responsibility is on me," Japaridze said. 

"I'm not going to stop; the main battles of Girchi are ahead," he added. 

Other leaders of the party have refrained from commenting as yet. 

By Ana Dumbadze