"Why should we take into account what he says, if he was a failure?" - Tsulukiani once again criticizes Ian Kelly

Minister of Culture and Deputy Prime Minister Tea Tsulukiani again criticizes former U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly, calling him "unprofessional" and a "nobody".

One of the Dream leaders responded to the diplomat interview with an extensive Facebook post. Tsulukiani wrote that Ian Kelly "has always been and remains a supporter of the political team that has terrorized the people of Georgia."

She said the former ambassador "Is nothing alike the Americans who were and still are ardent supporters of Georgia."

"A few words about how much Ian Kelly "loves" our country.

On a Georgian TV station owned by the political opposition, Mr. Ian Kelly claimed that Tea Tsulukiani made the false accusation that he did not love Georgia.

It pleases the heart to justify himself in this way. I want to believe that he loves our country and our people.

As Mr. Ian Kelly notes in the interview, we had a very close relationship during his time as ambassador to Georgia. But I cannot call those relations neither friendly, nor pleasant. It was a kind of exchange of opinions around this or that important legislative reform, which at the time was carried out by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia under my leadership.

For the first time in my current relationship, it occurred to me that Mr. Ian Kelly had nothing in common with those Americans who were and are big and ardent supporters of Georgia. To be a supporter of a country, you have to understand the pain of its people, and that takes at least the slightest bit of love. This former diplomat to Georgia has always and unwaveringly supported political forces whose actions have been against the will of the people. Mr. Ian Kelly was and still is an outspoken supporter of the political groups who, while in power (2003-2012), considered a judge an assistant attorney general, tortured and raped prisoners, jailed hundreds of minors, including girls, and put them away for years. And instead of building state institutions, they created a "fake" reconstruction, drafted a constitution to fit their needs, and established the so-called "Good Uncle Institute," which in exchange for freedom from prison meant "giving" the state its own real estate.

As an ambassador, Mr. Ian Kelly acted as an advocate for such political forces (the National Movement and the factions that emerged after its dissolution). At the same time, he was actively involved in Georgian politics and influenced the formation of the will of the Georgian electorate.

It seems that the love for the National Movement and the political groups formed in its depths has accompanied Mr. Ian Kelly after he left Georgia and has become his life guideline. The former ambassador often reminds us of himself and continues to advocate his political allies. Even leaving aside the fact that the ambassador is responsible for maintaining impartiality and his interference in domestic affairs cannot be christened love of country, Mr. Ian Kelly has never tried to remember that the political force he still loves and selflessly defends is considered by a large part of the population to be anti-Georgia.

Therefore, if we believe what Mr. Ian Kelly says in his interview, it turns out that he loves Georgia and, at the same time, supports the National Movement, which was not distinguished by love for their country, moreover: when in power , they rudely "washed" everything that was called historical, traditional and Georgian.

The public also remembers Ambassador Ian Kelly's criticism when the Georgian Dream government, led by the Georgian parliament, replaced Saakashvili's distorted constitution with a European-style document. Instead of rejoicing (or not rejoicing, but preferring to remain silent) over the successful completion of the most difficult political and legal process of radical constitutional change, he began to publicly undermine both the reform process itself and its outcome, thus, as I recall, within our own political team anxiety and misunderstanding were sown.

Even now, in his interview, Mr. Ian Kelly calls for punishing Georgia (which she loves) for its government's failure to make the text of the political agreement with the opposition its rule of conduct. I think Mr. Ian respects "political paper" more than the Georgian constitution, because he still needs this "paper" to revive and support the forces that the Georgian people voluntarily removed from power under the leadership of Bidzina Ivanishvili.

In his interview, Mr. Ian Kelly applauds the discrimination against the judge who convicted his political friend Niki Gvaramia, and says that the taxpayer of his country would be unhappy about funding the training of such a judge. After all, we Georgians, are overjoyed by your attempt to humiliate our country's judge, Mr. Ian!!!

But I am not surprised. I am not surprised because the Georgian Department of Justice initiated three fundamental waves of groundbreaking judicial reforms and the Juvenile Justice Code from 2013-2018, and Mr. Ian ended up as an ambassador, and I still didn't see his satisfaction or joy. Yet these reforms have remained for the good of this country, which it turns out, he loves.

Georgians love to accommodate foreigners, and we are proud of that, but there is a limit to everything. One may listen to a successful man, a real professional. Mr. Ian Kelly has shown such unprofessionalism as an ambassador, that when he left Georgia, he could not continue his career as a diplomat and was left to his own devices. He himself confirms in the interview that the American diplomat was busy criticizing his country's government. And all this instead of taking the traditional friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries to an even higher level.

Mr. Ian Kelly now teaches at a university, and he has so much time to talk about Georgia and its people on one topic or another. He has his own "competent" opinion on everything and we are probably not far from the time when he will be explaining Georgian dance moves on Twitter.

This doesn't surprise me either, because when an ambassador in Georgia has suffered a career fiasco, some invisible force pulls you back to the site of the failure and gives you false hope to correct the mistakes you made. Unfortunately, his attempts at this suffer a new fiasco and already irritate the reader or listener. Otherwise, on the other hand, how can listen to him when he was useless at his own work!

How can we answer to a man who comes out and unjustly reproaches us for why are we not standing up for Ukraine when there is a brutal attack on them! He talks about it and doesn't specify what more should have we done. Mr. Ian, what more can we do? I can even guess what you want to say, but feel free to tell us! You have never been shy about speaking in a haste, tell us that you would like it better if there was fire and war in this little Georgia, and that is what "standing up for Ukraine" means to you. We, the present government of Georgia, will not let our people, who have been through many trials, suffer this, and if you want this for us, tell us! Otherwise it is incomprehensible that little Georgia should do more for Ukraine than it does. We are at the forefront of humanitarian aid sent to Ukraine, we warmly welcome Ukrainian women and children, we open Ukrainian schools, we organize solidarity and charity actions, we actively participate in international legal and political processes against the occupying state - for the future of both Ukraine and our occupied country...

Finally, to be fair, I should mention what Ambassador Kelly did best in Georgia: he always told us that he was observing with great interest. But that's not enough for a good ambassador.

Fortunately, since the 1990s, we have had the honor and pleasure of interacting many times with the best ambassadors in the United States," wrote Tea Tsulukiani.