Georgia’s Speaker of Parliament resigns following June 20 clashes

YEREVAN, JUNE 21, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze has resigned following the mass protests of June 20, reports Armenpress.

“This decision is a responsibility before the people”, Secretary General of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia’ party Kakha Kaladze said.

TASS reports on June 20, several thousand protesters converged on the parliament in downtown Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the interior minister and the parliament’s speaker, and tried to storm the building. In response, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. According to Georgian media, dozens were detained, 240 people suffered injuries.

The protests were sparked by an uproar over a Russian State Duma delegation’s participation in the 26th session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO). On Thursday morning, IAO President Gavrilov opened the session in the Georgian parliament building. Opposition lawmakers were outraged by the fact that Gavrilov addressed the event’s participants from the parliament speaker’s seat. In protest, they did not allow the IAO session to continue.