Ex-Georgian president calls for stronger ties with Azerbaijan, Türkiye to ensure regional stability

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stated that Georgia should seek security guarantees and establish stronger ties with Türkiye and Azerbaijan.

Saakashvili made these remarks during a remote speech at a court hearing regarding his illegal border crossing case, Caliber.Az reports referring to Georgian media.

“We should also get security guarantees and establish ties with Türkiye and Azerbaijan. The South Caucasus should unite into a single bloc, work in a mutual assistance mode, and, of course, we should all move towards Europe,” he said.

He warned that under the current government, Georgia remains vulnerable to confrontation with Russia, which, in his view, could have severe consequences for the country.

“We are completely unprotected, and, of course, we do not need any confrontation with Russia. It will be absolutely disastrous for Georgian statehood. To avoid this confrontation, we should have a state that is much more protected. What we have today — abandonment and defenselessness — directly calls the invaders to further actions,” Saakashvili stated.

He further emphasised the necessity of holding new parliamentary elections “immediately” to put Georgia back on the path of European integration, while also making it clear that the country does not seek conflict with any of its neighbours.

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 following the end of his presidential term. Under the Georgian Dream government, four criminal cases were initiated against him. He was sentenced in absentia to three and six years in prison in two separate cases. Meanwhile, investigations continue into the violent dispersal of an opposition rally on November 7, 2007, and the alleged embezzlement of approximately 9 million GEL (over $3.2 million) in state funds.

In October 2021, Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia, where he was detained and charged again with illegal border crossing.

By May 2022, after a prolonged hunger strike that led to serious health deterioration, he was transferred to the private Tbilisi clinic “Vivamed,” where he remains to this day.

Saakashvili asserts that the Georgian Dream government is persecuting him on behalf of Russia, claiming that he “saved Georgia's statehood” during the August 2008 war and peacefully handed over power in 2012, thereby “preventing a provocation.”

By Tamilla Hasanova