Attendees were evacuated and no one was injured, said Mariam Kvaratskhelia, an LGBTQ activist who helped put together the event. In a statement, organizers criticized law enforcement for failing to “use proportionate force and measures against the attackers,” adding that police “forced” attendees to leave the venue. boarded prearranged buses instead of dispersing the mob.
Resentment of sexual minorities remains widespread in the southeastern European country, which has a strong Christian Orthodox influence. Critics have long accused the ruling Georgian Dream party – which opponents and some Western diplomats say is leading the country away from the West – of covertly supporting homophobic and nationalist groups.
Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze told reporters that law enforcement had difficulty policing an open space, and some protesters managed to bypass the cordons to enter the festival area, the media who is with the state said. Several counterprotesters were arrested, according to reports.
Saturday’s festival is held on a private, registration-only basis. This is the second year in a row that organizers have decided against a public march in hopes of reducing the risk of violent counter-protesters.
President Salome Zourabichvili, an independent critic of the governing Georgian Dream party, suggested that radical groups would be emboldened to disrupt events if the police “acted as they are doing now.”
He accused Dream lawmakers of stoking tensions against LGBTQ activists ahead of Pride and warned that by “inciting these counter-rallies and not condemning these actions or hate speech , the ruling party, the majority in Parliament, supports the violence and claims responsibility for all the consequences.”
The delegation of the European Union in Tbilisi said in a statement that it was “disappointing to see that the security and freedom of the assembly cannot be ensured” and that lawbreakers must be held accountable. The US Embassy in Tbilisi and other Western diplomatic missions also condemned the violent attack.
Georgia applied to join the European Union, but Brussels did not grant Tbilisi official candidate status last year, saying it wanted to see more reforms carried out. Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status at the time.
