The trio Addresses Ned Price - Letter from Khundadze to State department Spokesman

Three MPs, Dimitri Khundadze, Mikheil Kavelashvili and Sozar Subari, who have officially left the Georgian Dream, address a representative of the US Department of State.

The address, which Dimitri Khundadze is circulating, is presented in full:

" Dimitri Khundadze's address to Ned Price.

First of all I am addressing you with great respect as the State Department spokesman of Georgia's largest partner country.

I am addressing you on behalf of three members of parliament who have recently left the ruling party. Since your statement was addressed to us, that is why we decided to convey what we had to say directly for more clarity.

First of all, I would like to make it clear: when three members of the governing party and a high-ranking official leave their positions, the governing team, and take on the difficult mission, on the principle of speaking truth to the people, I think this is already a serious political message. Our political experience and past lives do not allow us to rashly take this step and talk about things for which we have no evidence.

What we have already said and what we will say in the future will only be backed up by facts. The risk we have taken is only in the national interest of our country. Our decision is firm, and we will not change it.

Is our deed a threat to Georgia's international relations? Of course not! It is precisely democratic values that compel us to be tough in our politics and to build interstate relations on the principles of equality and mutual respect.

Today's processes have made it even clearer how much Georgia and the West need each other. Our relations and commitments are mutual. New political contours point to strengthening of political pressure on the Caucasus in the future. Georgia is a leading country in the Caucasus.

Against the backdrop of ongoing processes, the question arises as to whether democratic values are being overestimated in the world today.

It is true that the new geopolitical situation is creating a new political reality, but it must not affect the core values for which the Georgian people have repeatedly shed their blood against the Russian invaders. If the new geopolitics changes not only territorial borders, but also the political ideology of the world, then we should know where does Georgia belong? Or at what price do we get the new predicament?

If we have to pay this price with war and thereby bring Georgia to the altar, then this reality is unacceptable to us. Not because we Georgians are afraid of war and do not know how to sacrifice for the motherland, but because we do not see the prospect of this path.

Besides, we will never start a war against our Abkhazian and Ossetian brothers, we will return to each other in peace.

In this we need the help of international partners. We have chosen NATO and the European Union as a guarantor for this, but so far to no avail.

To some extent, long years of waiting have made the Georgian people disillusioned with Western policy, which is dangerous not only for our country but also for the West itself. The Council of Europe's unfair decision on EU candidate status has angered the Georgian people.

It is clear to everyone that Western politics involves a combination of European and American politics, and people perceived this unjust decision as this joint agreement. Moreover, we were made aware of the basic political message from Europe, that Ukraine only got the status because it was involved in the war. With this it is clear to us what Georgia was ostracized for!

Not granting the status was a gross political mistake on the part of the West, which deepened polarization in the country and created a sense of injustice. The fact is that only Russia benefited from this decision.

Why do we keep talking about the war?

That's not what we're talking about; our political opponents have been talking about it since the start of the war in Ukraine. Moreover, war propaganda has begun in the country, and unfortunately, your state's ambassador to Georgia has not distanced herself from this rhetoric.

Similar rhetoric was heard yesterday from Ukraine's acting ambassador. We do not recall a single statement by Ms. Degnan against war propagandists in Georgia. However, there were many such facts. We will not go into details, because we believe you have all the information.

It is probably unacceptable for the United States of America to perceive employees of its embassy in Georgia as a political party. Unfortunately, however, this is the case. Is there any justification for such politicization of the diplomatic corps? As far as we know the American embassy is supposed to function for all Georgian citizens, not just for the radical opposition and their personal non-governmental organizations. This is "selective diplomacy," not to mention "electoral politics" disguised as diplomacy.

"Disinformation and personal attacks on the ambassador"?!

We would be convinced of the truth of these words if after the aggressive, dirty and abusive words of Nika Guaramia, founder of Mtavari TV, to your Ambassador Kelly Degnan, there was a statement from the U.S. State Department. Here he insulted and attacked him without demanding answers to the questions we asked. However, neither here nor from America have we heard such a statement, either about the attack itself or the underlying questions.

Ms. Degnan called the facts we provided a lie and said she didn't even read the letter to the end. I don't think this attitude on the part of any country's ambassador to the U.S. is acceptable to questions that a congressman is asking.

What is unacceptable to you is unacceptable to us. What is anti-democratic for the American people is anti-democratic for the Georgian people.

Why Bidzina Ivanishvili?

This question is acute today and will be even more acute in the future unless our Western friends explain to us what real democracy is.

Today we constantly hear that for 30 years now, the European Union and the United States of America have consistently helped our motherland, and we should be grateful to them for that. Yes, we are grateful and we have thanked our international partners many times, but why should we not thank a person who has also made a significant contribution to our country?

Moreover, it was Bidzina Ivanishvili who stood at the head of the real democracy in the country and it was under his leadership that the violent government, whose occasional success in certain spheres was based on constant and systematic violence and crime, was removed from the country in 2012. Even the attempt to politically rehabilitate him and his team causes aggression in the society against his lobbyists in Georgian society.

The issue of Bidzina Ivanishvili will become the benchmark for western values in Georgia! We openly declare that the insult to his dignity will not go unanswered neither by us nor by the society. The Georgian people have made many mistakes in the past history with regard to the national and state figures, we have not taken care of them and that is why the country has lost. We are not going to repeat that historical mistake. Bidzina Ivanishvili sacrificed everything for a better future for our country and now it is our turn!

Example of 30 years of cooperation gives us the right to say that we are capable of making a better partnership. Georgia has sacrificed everything to become a worthy member of NATO and EU family. We have shed blood for that many times and we are not going to sacrifice more in vain.

We do not want to stand permanently at the tightly closed doors of NATO and we do not want to receive chronic membership promises from the Council of Europe.

Georgia and the Georgian people deserve real and tangible results of their Western aspirations.

We do not want foreign governments to rudely interfere in the internal affairs of our country, review judicial decisions in embassies, artificially encourage a change of elected government, and insult the greatest benefactor of the Georgian people by imposing sanctions.

The Georgian people have already made a historic choice on the path of democratic development of an independent nation and will never change that choice.

Our main goal is to keep our democratic values alive and to protect Georgia from the threats that we see today in our country and on the international arena.

Dimitri Khundadze", - writes Dimitri Khundadze.