TBILISI. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The attempt of veteran National Guards to capture an army unit in Tbilisi on Sunday night was part of a plan to undermine stability in Georgia, Defense Minister David Tevzadze has said.
On Sunday night, some 50 veteran National Guards entered the grounds of an armed unit stationed in Isani, a densely populated district of Tbilisi. They started three tanks and tried to take them to the city streets, but were surrounded and disarmed by a commando battalion.
"The detained guards are only the top of the pyramid," Tevzadze told the press on Tuesday.
The Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax that the investigation has certain evidence that the attempted mutiny was not spontaneous and, contrary to the claims of the participants, it was not meant to attract the attention of the authorities to the poor conditions of veteran guards.
Irakly Batiashvili, chairman of the parliamentary defense and security committee, has told reporters that the plan to weaken stability was devised by special services "in a country that regards Georgia as a hostile state."
He did not rule out the possibility that the attempt to undermine stability in Georgia could have been connected with its active support for U.S. military operations in Iraq.