ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 12, 2005 Wednesday 6:23 AM Eastern Time

Ukraine may face Georgian scenario of 1992 – MP

KIEV

Ukrainian parliamentarian Nestor Shurfich, an ally of ex-Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovich, expressed his opinion on Wednesday that
if opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko is inaugurated as Ukraine’s
new president, the country may be in for a violent Georgian scenario
of 1992.

“After Viktor Yushchenko is declared president, a powerful opposition
will appear in the country,” Shufrich said in an interview with the
Day daily. He believes Yushchenko will have problems, as not all
Ukrainian nationals will recognize him as head of state.

“If the Supreme Court practically approves when considering a
complaint by Viktor Yanukovich all those processes which have taken
place in the country after November 21, Ukraine may find itself in
the situation similar to that which developed in Georgia in its
time,” he said. “I don’t only mean ‘the rose revolution’, but also
the removal of President Gamsakhurdia,” he added.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zviad Gamsakhurdia was
elected Georgia’s president. However, he could not govern the
country. Demonstrations were held against the increasingly
dictatorial Gamsakhurdia, a state of emergency was declared.
Gamsakhurdia lost control of state power and his government
eventually collapsed. He fled to Armenia, while Eduard Shevardnadze
with military backing was appointed interim president. Clashes
continued in Georgia’s self-style republics of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, where independence had been declared.

“If the new power is established unlawfully, I believe the opposition
will have a moral right to use revolutionary methods,” the
parliamentarian said.

At the same time, Yanukovich’s representative in the Central
Electoral Commission promised that the opposition will support “all
the positive, that the government of Yushchenko will offer”. “If
those positive tendencies that were fixed by the previous government
will be developed by Yushchenko’s cabinet of ministers, I don’t rule
out that our stance will soften,” he said.

However, at first we must make sure that the new authorities “can do
something positive for our people,” Shufrich stressed.