How we can save Georgian democracy

On Jan. 1, 2017 — eight years ago next month — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), my father, visited Georgia. It was the last of his many visits to a country and people that he so loved and respected.

On that day, he shook hands with a Georgian farmer, Data Vanishvili, affectionally referred to in Georgian as Grandpa Data (Data-Papa), whose property had been unjustly separated from the rest of Georgia by a Russian barbed-wire fence. My father knew that Georgia’s occupier and enemy was Russia, and that Georgia’s only chance of protecting its freedom and independence lies with the West.

Sadly, like my father, Data-Papa has since passed away. His wife, Valia, survives, may God be with her. But unlike my father, who spent his last days in Arizona at our beloved Hidden Valley ranch, Data-Papa passed away separated from his own lands.   

The situation in Georgia today tears at my heart. John McCain was a passionate believer in the Georgian people, and Georgian democracy. He saw the fiery spirit of freedom emblazoned on their faces, and he believed in them.

If my father were alive now, he would not recognize the Georgia we see today. One man ruling the country brutally from the shadows. Security services beating journalists and imprisoning politicians and parts of civil society. Military forces, sworn to protect the constitution, have been silent.

Western nations dumbfounded, because the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe could not tell them in a report, what their eyes actually saw — an election padded by possibly as many as 200,000 illegal votes, and a regime bent on staying in power at all costs, including by dashing the Georgian people’s hopes for EU Membership. 

President Salome Zourabichvili has been exemplary for her courageous stand with the people of Georgia, and for proposing a realistic way out of the current political impasse: appointment of a new Central Election Commission, and the conduct of new, and truly free and fair elections. 

Absent new, legitimate elections, the seating of the current Parliament — without the endorsement by the president of the republic — is illegitimate. All subsequent actions by that Parliament, including naming a new government, passing legislation and moving soon to elect a new president, are invalid and unconstitutional.

American and European leaders must speak up, make clear they do not recognize the results of the October elections, or the seating of a new parliament and government. They should support President Zourabichvili’s call for new, free and fair elections and impose sanctions on the Georgian Dream leadership until such elections take place.

Twenty percent of Georgian territory is already occupied by Russia. But now Russia is getting what it really wants — a Georgian government that sunders the dreams of the Georgian people in order subjugate the country’s freedom to Russian domination.

The Georgian Dream’s belief that the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president will resolve disagreements with the United States is woefully mistaken. When the new president sees how the Georgian Dream has verbally attacked the United States, substituted Chinese businesses for American ones in building its ports and infrastructure, and posed for photographs in Tehran with the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, all while mourning the death of the Iranian president, he will have little doubt about where the Georgian Dream actually stands.

It is not too late for the Georgian Dream to change course. Without international legitimacy, recognition and the consent of its own people, it will find governing difficult, and Georgia will rapidly take several steps backward politically and economically. Moreover, Georgia will become isolated from the West, leaving it alone to face Russia’s threats, occupation and other significant challenges to its territorial integrity and independence.

With truly free and fair elections, that reflect the will of the Georgian people, not just one man, Georgia’s reputation can be restored and a legitimate government can put Georgia back on course. Only through such a step can the real dreams of the Georgian people be realized.

Jack McCain is a McCain Institute board member.