TBILISI. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has accused the country's current authorities of doing nothing to stop scores of Georgian citizens from traveling to Syria to fight on the side of the Islamic State terrorist group.
"The Georgian government has been doing nothing to counter multiple instances of Georgian Muslims being recruited and being sent to Syria to join the ranks of the Islamic State terrorist organization. At the same time, the government makes a grimace every time one starts to speak about our citizens who are voluntarily fighting in Ukraine," Saakashvili told the Rustavi- 2 television station on Monday.
The ex-president claims that several hundred Georgian citizens are fighting in Syria.
Georgian media reported earlier that over the past year, from 50 to 100 local residents had been sent from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge to Syria to fight on the side of the Islamic State. Eight of them are believed to have been killed.