Tbilisi Mayor Apologizes for Insulting NGO Representative
TBILISI - Tbilisi Mayor David Narmania publicly apologized for verbally insulting a representative of an NGO at a meeting the day before.
On Wednesday, Green Fist member Irakli Kupradze confronted Narmania and demanded that city authorities discuss solutions to the city's environmental problems instead of making populist statements.
Narmania responded to Kupradze’s demands by calling him a “monkey” and expelled him from the meeting.
Protest rallies and a hunger strike at Tbilisi City Hall continue as no agreement was reached between Narmania and the NGOs.
A meeting was held between the two opposing City Council members, city officials and Narmania in attendance.
The environmental activists and NGOs peppered Narmania with questions about an incident at Tbilisi’s Kazbegi Street, where around 40 healthy trees were cut down on August 17.
The protestors demanded the ousters of both Narmania and the Deputy Head of the Ecology and Landscaping Service.
Narmania refused to quit and insisted that a decision about the site would be made after the Prosecutor’s office finishes their investigation into the incident.
“There is freedom of speech and expression in our country and no one can limit it, so these people can continue their protest,” stated Narmania at the meeting.
Narmania then chastised several of the environmentalists for speaking without permission and told them to leave the session. Both the activists and members of the NGOs immediately walked out of the meeting and vowed to continue their protest rally outside City Hall.
Members of Guerrilla Gardening Tbilisi are continuing their hunger strike and say the protest will last until their demands are met. Guerrilla Gardening’s Head Nata Peradze was forced to end her week long protest on Tuesday when she was rushed to the hospital after her health deteriorated earlier in the week.
Peradze was replaced by fellow Guerrilla Gardening member, Elene Malashevski-Jakeli.
The protestors also demanded that Narmania issue orders to immediately halt to the illegal cutting down of trees within the city limits.
Narmania reiterated that the city government has developed a Tbilisi Environmental Strategy for 2015-2020 – the first of its kind - which will come into force on January 1, 2017.
Under the fiver-year strategy, nearly 560,000 trees have been planted over the last two years, Narmania said.
Narmania said he would present a comprehensive report on the progress of the environmental strategy to Tbilisi’s City Council on August 26.
By Thea Morrison
Edited by Nicholas Waller