Georgian expats in U.S. stop Saakashvili from addressing their festival
TBILISI. April 22 (Interfax) - Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was not allowed to address the Georgians at the U.S. festival, which Georgian expatriates hold in the Brooklyn district of New York every year to present awards to the most successful Georgian expats.
Saakashvili's appearance at this year's festival caused a mixed response from around 150 people attending the event, the Georgian media reported on Monday, citing some of the expats.
Some of them immediately left the hall.
"The people got outraged not because he [Saakashvili] came. We are Christians. But he was free to come and stay. But he tried to interrupt the performance of the ensemble invited from Tbilisi in order to be able to deliver his speech," festival participant Shorema Tetrauli said.
"We have heard enough over the past nine years, and we do not want to hear once again what he did and how much is being done wrong today. We are not that blind, as someone may think. We see and understand how it was previously and how it is today. None of the ex-presidents is traveling and speaking [as much as Saakashvili]," she said.
Almost one half of people left the hall when the festival organizer announced that Saakashvili would address the audience after the ensemble ended its song, she said.
"People started to yell "go away, go away". They applauded the ensemble, encouraging it to keep singing in order not to allow Misha [Mikheil Saakashvili] to approach the microphone," Tetrauli said.
Saakashvili has been residing in the United States since he left Georgia in November 2013.