The Interior Ministry said Saturday it had detained 107 people overnight in the capital, Tbilisi, during a protest wherein demonstrators built barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue and threw fireworks at police, who dispersed them using water cannons and tear gas.
Georgia’s national intelligence agency, the State Security Service, reported that “specific political parties” tried to “overthrow the government by force.”
MORE PROTESTISTS GATHER
Many hundreds of protesters gathered in Tbilisi late Saturday evening, constructing barricades outside parliament in the face of a heavy police presence, and native media reported protests in cities across the country.
Hundreds of employees of the Georgian ministries of foreign affairs, defense, justice and education, and the central bank signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze accession talks with the EU.
According to local media, major firms, including London-listed banks TBC Bank and Bank of Georgia, expressed their support for joining the EU, while Georgia’s top diplomats in Italy and the Netherlands resigned on Saturday in protest.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, star of the Georgian national football team, sided with the protesters.
“My country is suffering, my people are suffering. Watching the videos circulating is painful and emotional. Stop the violence and aggression! Georgia deserves Europe today more than ever!” – Kvaratskhelia wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Standing in front of the parliament constructing in the capital, where the EU and Georgian flags hang side by side, protester Tina Kupreishvili said she wanted Georgia to honor its constitutional commitment to hitch the EU.
 and said she would not leave office when her term ends next month, defying the prime minister as he accused pro-EU op){kind=link}