One of the leaders of the Georgian opposition and organizer of the October 4, 2025 protest, Paata Burchuladze, has released a letter from prison. The world-renowned opera singer is serving a seven-year sentence for organizing group violence and calling for the overthrow of state power.
“October 4 marks exactly one year since citizens held a National Assembly for the first time in Georgia’s history, attended by representatives not only from all cities and district centers, but virtually from every village. In addition, delegates arrived specially for the assembly from Abkhazia (Gali district), Samachablo, and the foreign diaspora.
During one of the court hearings, my lawyer cited Ilia [Chavchavadze]’s words about the fermentation of wine as an argument. Young wine initially bubbles, mixing everything together: sweetness, bitterness, and sediment. Then time passes, the wine clears and takes on its true color. This is precisely the path Georgia’s National Assembly is traversing right now, and the more time passes, the higher its significance is valued.
Many detractors, for one reason or another, wanted and still want to diminish its role, but to no avail: the assembly took place! It unanimously adopted a declaration, and that is a fact. Let [Georgian] ‘Dream’ stubbornly ignore the declaration unanimously voted for by hundreds of thousands of citizens and continue playing ‘government’—without popular support, however, it will not last long,” Burchuladze writes.
According to the prisoner, he is grateful to politicians who write to him stating they have changed their stance: “they now view the assembly’s decision favorably and are confident that, over time, it will be valued even more, as this event has already gone down in the history of Georgia.” Meanwhile, he urged those opposition politicians who continue to criticize the events of October 4 to abandon endless talk and speculation and instead “propose a better action plan—and then we, the citizens of Georgia, will follow you.”
“Yet let them not forget one thing: only dead fish swim with the flow.”
“Let me remind you that on October 4, Georgia’s citizens ‘voted out’ ‘Dream’; politicians, however, are duty-bound to ensure that real elections take place.
My fellow comrades! We managed to do it: on the day of ‘Dream’s’ ‘elections,’ we ousted them! The era of impostors in Georgia must be consigned to history once and for all. As long as we stand united, neither internal nor external enemies can break us! Victory is inevitable! Long live a free, united, European Georgia; struggle until the victorious end!” Paata Burchuladze writes.
As a reminder, on October 4, 2025, concurrently with municipal elections in Georgia, a mass protest took place in downtown Tbilisi, which the opposition termed the “National Assembly.” One of the rally’s organizers—the world-famous singer Paata Burchuladze—read out a declaration from the stage announcing the termination of the government’s authority and the beginning of a peaceful transition period. He also called for the arrest of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, ruling party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, and other leaders of Georgian Dream.
Shortly thereafter, a section of the opposition and its supporters headed toward the presidential residence, where protesters tore down a fence and attempted to breach the Orbeliani Palace. The rally was dispersed by riot police, and many of its organizers were detained and sentenced to prison terms.