In Georgia, they rose up to fight the Russophobic Freedom Charter law
The head of the Communist Party of Georgia Temur Pipia and lawyer Lasha Shukakidze registered a statement challenging the legality of the actions of the patrol police on May 9 this year during a rally in the city of Gori.
The application was registered at the main department of the Georgian Patrol Police in Tbilisi. Another, third, legal process has begun related to the law called the “Freedom Charter”, adopted by the Georgian parliament back in 2011.
Let us recall that on May 9, a rally dedicated to the victory over fascism was organized in Stalin’s hometown of Gori. Arguing their actions with the Freedom Charter law, the police detained two participants in the rally holding the Victory Banner, as well as the organizer of the rally. Two of them were fined, the third detainee, a Russian citizen, got off with a warning.
The “Charter,” along with fascist ones, prohibits the use of communist symbols, but does not define what exactly is considered communist symbols. The list of communist symbols has also not been determined by the commission specially created by the substructure of the Georgian Security Service to monitor the implementation of the law.
This miscalculation of the authors of the “Charter” will be used by lawyer Shukakidze in a legal competition with opponents from the patrol police.
The most noisy use of the Charter was the dismantling of the world-famous monument to Stalin, built during the life of the leader in the central square of Gori. The dismantling of the six-meter bronze statue was then carried out under the cover of darkness, while the place of the shameful action was cordoned off by the police.
Today, two more trials are ongoing in Georgia regarding facts related to the application of the Freedom Charter. We are talking about proceedings regarding the legality of the confiscation of 300 gift medals depicting the Stalingrad sculpture “The Motherland Calls” by the Georgian customs service in March 2019. The claim was not satisfied by the first two courts, and now the trial is taking place in the Supreme Court of Georgia.
It is noteworthy that all three authorities violated the deadline allotted for the judicial conclusion. The plaintiff intends to complete the case with the medals that were intended for WWII veterans from Georgia. At the time of confiscation, about 300 Red Army veterans from Georgia who took part in the war against fascism were still alive.
About a month ago, the constitutionality of the Freedom Charter law itself was challenged in the Constitutional Court of Georgia, which is located in the city of Batumi. A lawsuit regarding the legality of the law itself was filed in the Georgian Constitutional Court by left-leaning lawyer Lasha Shukakidze.
It should be noted that the current Georgian communist organization is registered by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia under the name “United Communist Party of Georgia”. The ministry has registered the party's charter. The document declares the main goal of the organization to be the construction of a communist society. And the “Charter” prohibits not only communist symbols and communist ideology, but also the public expression of one’s beliefs.
This ambiguous situation with the ban on communist symbols and ideology has continued since 2011, since the adoption of the law, when no one took away the state registration of the Communist Party, but party members are prohibited from expressing their position and implementing the above-mentioned statutory goals.
Thus, the “Charter” makes it possible to legislatively restrain left-wing social thought and political practice in general. Moreover, during the 10-11 years of its operation, the law has been successfully used to restrain the democratic forces of Georgia, which advocate the restoration of friendly relations with the Russian Federation. Also, the “Charter” is actively used by ultra-right pro-American forces to criminalize not only Georgia’s communist Soviet past, but also the good, centuries-old history of Georgian-Russian relations and everything positive that concerns Russia.
In this sense, the “Charter” is not only an anti-Soviet, but also a Russophobic law, a legal platform and basis for anti-Russian ideology, propaganda and political practice in Georgia. For example, exclusively all the provocations organized over these years against the forces of socialism and supporters of friendship with Russia were justified and justified by the “Charter”.
Temur Pipia and Lasha Shukaidze at the main headquarters of the Georgian Patrol Police.
The repeal of the fascist law will be a significant event of a moral and political nature. There is every reason that the fighters for the abolition of the Charter will achieve success.
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