Eurasia Insight:
GEORGIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER IS FIRED
Molly Corso: 10/19/05

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli on October 19 announced the dismissal of Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili after parliament earlier passed a resolution demanding her resignation for “ineffectiveness.”

Parliament, which is dominated by President Mikheil Saakashvili’s National Movement Party, called for Zourabichvili’s resignation early on October 19, prompting a flurry of political consultations. Saakashvili met with the foreign minister and members of the parliament. Nogaideli postponed a trip to the United States in order to meet with Nino Burjanadze, the speaker of the parliament, Zourabichvili, and Saakashvili.

In announcing Zourabichvili’s dismissal, Nogaideli seemed to suggest that the long-standing friction that had existed between the foreign minister and many MPs threatened to hamper the government’s work. At a news conference, he indicated that Zourabichvili refused to moderate her stance towards parliament, thus hastening her departure. The prime minister did not immediately name a replacement for Zourabichvili.

“Parliament voiced very serious discontent regarding the leader of the Foreign Ministry, involving violations persisting in the Ministry,” Nogaideli said at a news conference. “These discontents also involved giving preferences to the relatives in staff policy, also failure to fully implement some very important initiatives, also disrespect towards the Parliament and disrespect towards the democratic process”

As political consultations were held October 18, Zourabichvili declined to speculate on her future. “I do not make decisions; it is up to the president and the prime minister [to decide the dismissal issue],” she told journalists after she met with Nogaideli. Despite repeated attempts, EurasiaNet was unable to reach anyone at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

Two parliamentary committees, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Committee for European Integration, pressed for Zourabichvili’s ouster, calling the foreign minister work “ineffective.” According to Devi Gogeshvili, a staff member on the Foreign Relations Committee, there were several reasons the committees sought her resignation. “The committee believes that Zourabichvili’s actions do not reflect the politics of the parliament and the president of Georgia,” he said in a telephone interview with EurasiaNet. “The ministry did not effectively fulfill its obligation to resolve international assignments,” Gogeshvili claimed. However Gogeshvili declined to give concrete examples that could substantiate his allegation.

According to Gogeshvili, ambassadors in several countries complained about Zourabichvili. In an interview broadcast by the Imedi television channel, Irakli Chubinishvili, the Georgian envoy to Russia, claimed that the Georgian Embassy in Moscow receives “no instruction” from the Foreign Ministry.

Opposition politicians generally believe that parliament’s move against the foreign minister was motivated by domestic political factors. Koba Davitashvili, the leader of the Conservative opposition party, does not believe there is any concrete reason for the call for Zourabichvili’s dismissal. “This is more a matter of political intrigue than real complaints about her service,” he said in a telephone interview. “From the very beginning the parliament has been against her without any reason.”

MPs and Zourabichvili had long been at odds, but in mid October evident tension erupted into name calling. The first sign of trouble came when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was a day late delivering the Framework Convention for National Minorities, which was due on October 12 and arrived in parliament the next day. The delay prompted Davit Kirkitadze, the deputy chairman of the National Movement parliament faction, to attack Zourabichvili, calling her “negligent.” Zourabichvili was out of the country at the time and in response, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson characterized Kirkitadze’s comments as ‘unacceptable.’

Zourabichvili hinted that some MPs try to stir up trouble when she is out of the country on diplomatic missions. “It makes our work very difficult, because the ministry staff has to respond to that criticism instead of doing its business,” she said during comments made in parliament on October 18.

The minister was also under fire last spring after talks broke down between Russian and Georgia concerning the Russian bases on Georgian territory. However, Zourabichvili eventually was able to broker a deal with Moscow and was widely thanked by both the parliament and Burjanadze on May 30, when she signed the agreement on the bases’ closure. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The controversy surrounding Zourabichvili is fueling tension within the governing National Movement. One National Movement MP, Gia Tortladze, announced that he was leaving the party because of his opposition to the move to dismiss the foreign minister, Civil Georgia reported.