Opposition groups started to gather around former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze. The opposition decided to hold public rallies in Tbilisi on the first anniversary of opposition demonstrations first organized on Nov. 7, 2007. Following the skirmishes between opposition and the police that ensued during the rallies, Saakashvili declared a state of emergency throughout the country and closed down independent TV channels and radio stations. Burjanadze has already started to make calls for an early election and is expected to establish a political party out of dissident groups in November. He argues that "due to the errors made in the war against the Russian Federation, a grave political crisis is awaiting the country."Saakashvili is taking measures to prevent the opposition rallies and the risk of an early election in 2009. As part of these measures, Saakashvili dismissed reformist Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze, who was seen in İstanbul nightclubs on Sept. 6 just after the war in August, and replaced him on Oct. 27 with Grigol Mgaloblishvili, who was Georgia's ambassador to Turkey. During his term as president, Saakashvili had seen quite a few prime ministers. Zurab Jivanya, who became the prime minister just after the Rose Revolution, died mysteriously on Feb. 3, 2005. After Jivanya, Giorgi Baramidge acted as prime minister by proxy for two weeks before leaving the office to Zurab Nogaideli on Feb. 17, 2005. Nogaideli handed over the office to Gurgenidze on Nov. 22, 2007.
It has been officially disclosed that Gurgenidze will chair a commission that will inspect the efforts for fighting the economic crisis. Being a technocrat and a former banking expert at the age of 37, Gurgenidze assumed office after several opposition rallies with the promise of attracting foreign investment to the country and ensuring economic growth. But the war in Georgia dealt a fatal blow to the foreign investors' interest in the country. For international oil corporations and for Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Georgia lost its role as a secure energy corridor extending from the east to the west. In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev's second term started after the elections on Oct. 15, and the country turned its face toward the Kremlin. Moreover, Kazakhstan suspended a project for building an oil refinery in Batumi. This means that the healthy progress of the Georgian economy has stopped.
Mgaloblishvili's Cabinet contains four new ministers. Mgaloblishvili is 35 years old and graduated from Oxford University. He speaks Russian, Turkish and English. Despite his youth, he is confident in foreign policy and economic issues. He knows the US, the EU, the Russian Federation and Turkey well. He believes that Turkey and Georgia should be integrated in economic terms and to this end, existing bureaucratic obstacles should be removed. During his time as the ambassador in Ankara, he managed to take concrete steps toward free circulation of labor and goods. Visa requirements had been mutually lifted, the Batumi airport was renovated and set to service, and a free trade agreement was signed. After a high-profile office in Ankara, Mgaloblishvili will have to overcome many hardships in Tbilisi, including the failure to integrate with the European-Atlantic world, the ongoing crisis with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, an internal political environment that is like to produce political crisis and early election, discouraged foreign investments, and the economic crisis caused by the global financial turmoil. There are several issues that Turkey expects Mgaloblishvili to solve including the return of Meskhetian (Ahıska) Turks to Georgia, the delayed construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line and the Christianization of Ajaristan.
Mgaloblishvili's youth and skills might help him to solve these hard issues. He is also experienced. Success will be his company.
