Georgia: Protect the NATO flag! Ban the Victory Banner!

The Georgian authorities have passed a law prohibiting, under threat of arrest, trampling, burning and other disrespect for the flags of the EU and NATO member countries. The day before, the innovation was approved by parliament in the third reading. The reason for the initiative was the riots of last summer, when the EU flag, defiantly hanging in front of the Georgian parliament, was also defiantly torn down and burned,

The flag of the European Union was burned in Tbilisi on July 5 and 6 last year. These were opponents of the LGBT march, who disrupted the propaganda campaign of representatives of sexual minorities. Outraged by the open and assertive support from the US and EU ambassadors, the Orthodox then attacked the flagpole with a huge EU banner. Instead, a large Orthodox cross was immediately erected in the same place.

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Almost all Georgian media and political parties then took the fact of “insulting” the EU with hostility, hinting at a “Russian trace” in what happened.

The adoption of a law preventing the repetition of such actions was also justified by the recent flash mob with the burning of EU and US flags. The videos, filmed by supporters of the Conservative party, received significant support on social networks and managed to be released before the law was adopted in the third reading. By the way, the authors of the videos demanded the release of opponents of the gay pride parade arrested in the summer, whom they called the personal prisoners of the US Ambassador.

Before this, the last public American flag was burned in Georgia about 20 years ago, during an action by the now banned Georgian Communist Party in front of the US Embassy. The initiator of the burning of the Stars and Stripes was then detained by the police, but released after a light “preventative conversation” due to the lack of other legal leverage. Since then, much has changed in Georgian society, including the attitude towards the country’s unlikely integration into the EU and NATO structures.

_{The approving response from a significant part of the Georgian public regarding the fresh facts of insulting the state symbols of the “partner” countries is explained by the decline in the authority of both the United States and the EU.}  

The serious concern of the Georgian authorities in connection with the public act of expressing dissatisfaction with the policies of the EU and the United States was manifested by the immediate reaction of the chairman of parliament, who personally raised the EU flag immediately on the second day after the incident and immediately distributed the corresponding video material. Condescendingly approving of the “restoration of justice,” European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Affairs Oliver Várhelyi then ominously declared that “barbarity begins with arson.”

The bill to protect the symbols of the EU and NATO was initiated not by an ordinary deputy, but by the chairman of the parliamentary committee on international relations and was approved unanimously. From now on, insulting the symbols of partner countries has become administratively punishable: defacing European symbols will be fined 1000 lari (24 thousand rubles). A repeated offense will cost twice as much or be punishable by administrative arrest for 15 days.

Thus, Georgia now protects the state flag and other symbols of foreign states, although not all, but “selected”: the EU, NATO and NATO member countries.

Exactly the same amount - 1000 lari - is determined as a fine for persons displaying communist symbols. Even under Saakashvili, in 2011, a law was adopted under the cynical name “Freedom Charter”, prohibiting communist symbols and ideology - along with fascist ones. It is clear that the effect of this law is directed against communist symbols; fascist symbols are already prohibited.

The Georgian authorities apply the Charter quite diligently. So, on May 9, 2019, a protest participant was detained in Victory Park in Tbilisi for demonstrating the Victory Banner. It’s funny that with a copy of the banner, a relative of that Kantarius, who, together with Yegorov, hoisted the assault red flag over the Reichstag, walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On the same day, the police also took away a banner with a hammer and sickle from a protest participant in the city of Gori. A year ago, the Georgian customs service confiscated up to 300 medals dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Some social movements regularly receive letters from the State Security Service warning them not to use communist symbols, including the red flag of Victory, in public places.

But the demonstrative burning of the flag of the Georgian SSR, that is, the state flag of the second republic of Georgia in the same place where the EU flag was burned, is approvingly covered by all the main media in Georgia. In conditions of total Russophobia, when Soviet symbols are identified with the “occupation” of Georgia by Soviet Russia, and now with current Russia supporting Abkhazia and South Ossetia, such facts are even welcomed at the official level. The last time the flag of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was burned in front of the Georgian parliament was early last year.

It turns out that Georgia legally protects the flag of NATO and the EU, while at the same time also legally prohibiting the red flag of Victory. We would hardly be mistaken if we say that so far it is the only country of its kind.

Considering the miserable state of people, the law recently adopted by the Georgian Parliament will somewhat reduce the desire to publicly insult the symbols of the EU and the USA, but will not add sympathy for these organizations among sober-minded citizens. Just like Saakashvili’s repressive law did not stop those who wanted to celebrate May 9 with the Victory Banner, contemptuously neglecting the Freedom Charter.

_{PS: The legality of the mentioned confiscation of medals with “communist symbols” has been challenged in court. The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court of Georgia.}