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<\/a><\/p>\nSpeaking to journalists, Papuashvili claimed that several leaders within the Commission are actively promoting a biased narrative regarding Georgia and expressed skepticism about the objectivity of the upcoming discussion.<\/p>\n
The Speaker specifically referred to Laura Thornton, Senior Director for Global Democracy Programs at the McCain Institute and former head of the National Democratic Institute office in Georgia. Papuashvili questioned whether Thornton would attend the session and suggested that her previous political statements undermine the credibility of testimony presented before the Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect Madam Thornton to attend the meeting, and I wonder if she will repeat her previous statements,\u201d Papuashvili said, implying that the Commission relies on testimony from individuals whose views, in his assessment, are politically motivated.<\/p>\n
He further stated that the Georgian government has \u201cno expectations\u201d regarding the outcome of the meeting, arguing that the Commission\u2019s approach toward Georgia has demonstrated a consistent pattern of political bias.<\/p>\n
The US Helsinki Commission, officially known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, is an independent US government agency created in 1976 to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Final Act. Its mandate includes oversight of human rights, democracy, rule of law, and security issues across the 57 member states of the OSCE.<\/p>\n
The Commission frequently holds hearings and briefings on democratic governance, electoral processes, media freedom, and foreign influence in various countries, including Georgia.<\/p>\n
Relations between certain US institutions and Georgia\u2019s ruling party have experienced periodic strain in recent years, particularly over issues such as:<\/p>\n
Democratic standards and electoral reforms<\/p>\n
Judicial independence<\/p>\n
Media environment<\/p>\n
Civil society legislation<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s foreign policy orientation.<\/p>\n
Recent debates over Georgia\u2019s political direction, as well as discussions surrounding alleged democratic backsliding, have drawn attention in Washington policy circles.<\/p>\n
The February 11 briefing is expected to address developments in Georgia\u2019s political environment and democratic trajectory. However, Georgian officials maintain that international criticism often reflects political bias rather than objective assessment.<\/p>\n
Papuashvili reiterated that, in his view, the Commission\u2019s leadership is advancing a predetermined narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see the Helsinki Commission\u2019s working style,\u201d he said. \u201cThey hold to an absolutely obvious political agenda against the Georgian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Image source: 1TV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has sharply criticized the US Helsinki Commission ahead of its February 11 meeting,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[158,113,8293,8294],"class_list":{"0":"post-10527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-helsinki","8":"tag-finland","9":"tag-helsinki","10":"tag-helsinki-commission","11":"tag-shalva-papuashvili"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}