Tabula founder Chergoleishvili: part of opposition, me, were against storming parliament per Melia’s calls in June 2019

Founder of Tabula online media outlet, wife of former official under the United National Movement (UNM) government and current head of the European Georgia opposition party Giga Bokeria, Tamar Chergoleishvili, claims that she, as well as part of the opposition, were against the calls of the current UNM head Nika Melia to break into the state legislature back on June 20, 2019. 

The opposition took to the street on June 19, 2019 after Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov took the seat of the Georgian parliamentary speaker during an international religious event. 

Dozens of individuals were injured during the rally dispersal on June 19-20 in central Tbilisi, with the Georgian Dream government and then Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia statning that the opposition attempted to overthrow the government through storming the parliament. 

Then UNM member and current head of the UNM Melia was later charged with incitement to violence during the rally. 

Chergoleishvili says in her recent Facebook post that she was at TV Pirveli channel when she learned about the encouragement of Melia to storm the state legislature. 

She says that she was against the move ‘which would discredit the rally’ and ‘ran to the parliament building’ to meet with her husband and to ‘somehow discharge the situation.’ 

Chergoleishvili has dismissed the statement of Gakharia, who currently runs the opposition For Georgia party, that ‘no meeting was planned between the opposition and the ruling party’ ahead of the rally dispersal. 

She says that through the mediation of opposition representatives Pavle Kublashvili and Akaki Bobokhidze ‘a meeting was about to begin’ between the ruling party and the opposition ‘which would discharge the situation,’ when the riot police began shooting rubber bullets at demonstrators.