Georgian defence minister says ex-Pres Saakashvili aims to ‘discredit, politicize’ army

Georgian Defence Minister Juansher Burchuladze has responded to recent calls of the country’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili for Georgian armed forces. 

 

Burchuladze says that Saakashvili’s statements are ‘discrediting the army and trying to politicize it.’ 

 

Saakashvili, who has been on the run since 2013 and is currently holding an official post in Ukraine as the citizen of the country, has called on Georgian armed forces to ‘actively participate’ in the October 2 municipal elections to help the opposition end the governance of the Georgian Dream (GD). 

 

Saakashvili, who has made a promise shortly before that he will return to Georgia for the elections, has told soldiers that the current state leadership and the founder of the GD Bidzina Ivanishvili ‘are very much hate them’ and that they have done their best to ‘weaken and destroy’ the country’s armed forces.