Open Letter to the Governments and Parliaments of Europe “Europe Must Not Watch Again”

“Europe Must Not Watch Again”

To the governments and parliaments of: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Dear friends of Europe,

We, the citizens of Georgia and participants in the peaceful protest movement on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, address you not with political slogans but with a cry for help. Because Georgia stands today where Europe once stood — on the brink of darkness.

In recent months, repression by the Georgian government has intensified dramatically. Opposition leaders are imprisoned, journalists persecuted, protesters beaten and detained. The judiciary no longer serves justice but fear.The ruling party Georgian Dream no longer acts as a democratic force but as an extended arm of Russian security structures. The regime controlled by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili has entirely abandoned European values — while continuing to use their language.

A parallel Europe should remember

When we take to the streets of Tbilisi today, we remember another Europe — the Europe of 1938. Back then, many Western governments believed that appeasement could restrain a dictator. Back then, silence seemed easier than confrontation.But history teaches us: silence feeds violence.

Europe’s passivity during the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 — and the absence of timely sanctions emboldened Moscow to go further: Crimea, Donbas, Bucha. Today, Georgia faces the same danger a hybrid war fought not with tanks, but with courts, media, and fear.

Our democracy is under siege from within.

Georgia is not lost — not yet

What happens in Tbilisi will decide not only Georgia’s future but the moral foundation of Europe itself. If Georgia’s democracy falls, another stone will crumble from the European house of freedom.

We no longer have an opposition its leaders are behind bars.We no longer have an independent judiciary it serves the regime. What remains is the people.The people who stand peacefully on Rustaveli Avenue unarmed but fearless, with hope as their only defense.

On October 4th, the authorities orchestrated a provocation aimed at crushing this movement. Since then, dozens of peaceful demonstrators have been arrested daily — students, journalists, teachers, doctors.Measured by population, Georgia now has more political prisoners than Russia. And yet, Europe remains silent.

Europe must not watch again

Your governments, your parliaments, your embassies know what is happening in Georgia. But knowledge without action is complicity.

The world has seen this before when democracies collapsed behind the mask of legality in the 1930s. Today’s repression in Georgia wears the same suit, only with a different label: “national sovereignty,” “transparency law,” “traditional values.” It is the language of tyranny, dressed in the rhetoric of democracy.

We do not ask for pity — we demand solidarity

You now possess the tools that Europe lacked then: targeted sanctions, financial measures, political isolation. Use them — before it is too late.

We ask you:

• Impose individual sanctions on judges who hand down political verdicts.

• Freeze the assets of those businessmen who fund the regime.

• Target Bidzina Ivanishvili, the oligarch who rules Georgia from the shadows.

As long as his power remains untouched, no promise of reform, no dialogue, no mediation will change anything.

Europe, it’s time to take a stand again

In 1939, the moment came when silence was no longer an option.Let 2025 not be the year when Europe once again hesitated out of comfort, diplomacy, or fatigue.

We appeal to you not only as neighbors, but as those who know that freedom is never self-evident.

If Georgia falls, a part of Europe falls with it. But if Europe acts now, Georgia can still be saved.

With hope and determination, The Protest Community of Rustaveli Avenue Tbilisi, GeorgiaOctober 2025