Georgia

Shevardnadze Quells Student Protest

President Eduard Shevardnadze met with students on the campus of Tbilisi State University in a last-ditch attempt to quell the recent wave of anti-government demonstrations, which threaten his administration. The meeting concluded with Shevardnadze promising to set up a student council, which he agreed to meet with on a regular basis.

Riots broke out when government troops raided a popular television station known for criticizing Georgia’s notoriously corrupt civil servants. Thousands of demonstrators, many of them students, took to the streets to demand Shevardnadze’s resignation and an end to state corruption. Political analysts hailed Shevardnadze’s handling of the crisis as a political victory.

— Times Higher Education Supplement
Nov. 16, 2001