Georgia: Patriarch Hints that Opposition Should Stop Protests

Georgian opposition members insist they will persist in their efforts to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili, despite an apparent call by Georgia's spiritual leader, Patriarch Ilia II, to put an end to the protests.

In a sermon marking Georgia's Independence Day on May 26, the patriarch referred to Georgia's often painful experience with domestic political strife, noting that post-Soviet Georgia's first two presidents did not manage to serve out their terms. He went on to hint that the current efforts to force Saakashvili from power were making it more difficult for the country to regain its balance following a disastrous war against Russia in 2008.

"Part of our population is demanding President's resignation. I want to say that this issue is so complicated and generally it has to some extent become a rule in our country, where the first president [Zviad Gamsakhurdia], the second president [Eduard Shevardnadze] were forced to resign. You know what these resignations have brought to us?" Patriarch Ilia II said in his sermon in the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Ilia II's sermon did not appear to sway opposition leaders. "We will act decisively and very actively. We are not going to take any step back," opposition leader and former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze was quoted as saying by the Civil.ge news website.

To kick off the Independence Day holiday, protestors from around the country nearly filled to capacity Tbilisi's 55,000-seat Dinamo stadium, for speeches and a later march down the Georgian capital's central Rustaveli Avenue.

Saakashvili marked Independence Day by opening a new memorial cemetery for soldiers slain in the 2008 war with Russia.