TBILISI, May 19 – Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has accused Denmark of backsliding on human rights after Danish police used force against pro-Palestinian protesters in Copenhagen.
According to Middle East Monitor, citing Anadolu and the Danish outlet Arbejderen, police used batons, dragged protesters away and detained around 20 activists during the May 13 blockade of Maersk’s headquarters in Copenhagen. Protesters claimed there was a risk the transport was military cargo intended for Israel and could be used in the Gaza Strip.
Kobakhidze said the incident showed a worrying trend inside the European Union, especially when it comes to freedom of assembly.
“When we observe what scale of backsliding one or another EU country has, and in this case Denmark, in terms of human rights, specifically in terms of ensuring freedom of assembly, this is truly alarming,” Kobakhidze told journalists.
According to Kobakhidze, Georgia needs to react to such cases and draw public attention to them so people can make their own conclusions about the direction Europe is taking.
“This should not be overlooked,” he said.
Widening the criticism to the European Union, Kobakhidze commented on May 18 that it showed “backsliding” in an EU country on human rights and freedom of assembly. He said what happened in Denmark was “more than alarming” and that such scenes would have been hard to imagine 10 or 20 years ago.
Monday, he issued an open letter to EU leaders, stating that Georgia is a European country and an EU candidate state, but accused what he called the European bureaucracy of cutting off political dialogue with Tbilisi and rejecting formats for discussion and cooperation proposed by the Georgian side.
Kobakhidze wrote that Georgia’s European aspiration is not just about formal integration, but about values rooted in Christian morality, freedom, equality, human rights and democratic principles.
But he said the Copenhagen footage raised serious questions about where Europe is heading.
“For Georgia, as well as for any country committed to democratic values, both the violence we saw in Copenhagen and the fact that the European Union no longer protects the fundamental principles on which it was founded are categorically unacceptable,” he wrote.
