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After PM's remarks, Saakashvili says he is not 'dictator'

27 February 2013 17:13 (UTC+04:00)
After PM's remarks, Saakashvili says he is not 'dictator'

By Sabina Idayatova

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said he doesn't consider himself a dictator, responding to the prime minister's recent harsh remarks.

"The charges of constitutional dictatorship brought against me by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who thought up a new epistolary style and corresponds with me on Facebook and demands the answer there, are unclear for me," Saakashvili told a press conference at the presidential palace on Tuesday.

The statement came in response to the prime minister's ultimatum to Saakashvili, in which he urged the president to express his clear position on constitutional amendments which will be put to the vote in parliament by the end of March.

"Within the next two or three days, you should clearly and unequivocally state whether or not you support a ban on the change of government without the consent of parliament," Ivanishvili said in his open letter.

Saakashvili said that instead of cooperation he had sustained new attacks, and now is asked to give up his constitutional powers.

"It is not about what is written in the Constitution, as I declared more than once and I declare today, that I don't intend to exercise my rights on parliament and government dissolution - the matter is in the climate, which is far from normal," Saakashvili stated.

The Georgian parliamentary majority has introduced some constitutional changes for limiting the powers of the President. The majority and minority still have not agreed on the proposed changes to the constitution. The tensions began to escalate after the Georgian president's annual speech was postponed due to his refusal to recognize the constitutional changes limiting presidential powers.

Speaking about the danger of large-scale recognition of Georgia's separatist regions at a briefing, Saakashvili said it is promoted by a conciliatory position of the Georgian government.

"Russia has already transferred to Cuba 30 billion dollars and demands instead the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia tells Cubans not to be nervous so far as Georgia recognizes itself as an aggressor and therefore there are no diplomatic problems," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili emphasized that in the background of the rhetoric of some ministers of the new government, in particular, state minister on reintegration Paata Zakareishvili, who recognize Georgia responsible for the aggression and are gradually beginning to admit facts of prosecution of enemies, it comes as no surprise that Georgia gradually will lose support in the West.

"We should sit down together and resolve these issues jointly because the threat is real and Georgia can lose the support," Saakashvili says.

Georgia and Russia, its giant northern neighbor, have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over the two rebel regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- and later recognized the breakaway regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.

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