Tbilisi City Hall have for the past two weeks sought to maintain tradition by decorating Freedom Square and Rustaveli Avenue with lights. The Freedom Square tree was completed on Monday with the annually-changing message. Last year, it was “City Full of Peace” – judged as insensitive considering the Ukraine-Russia conflict. This year, City Hall chose to go with the decidedly ambiguous “City Full of Victories.”
In front of parliament, patrol police stood guard on Sunday as the metal frame for the green tree was constructed, but only the top half could have its ‘foliage” added before nightfall and the 11th night of rallying kicked off.
Once the patrol police moved away, protesters were quick to decorate the tree with the Georgian, EU, Ukraine and US flags, protest messages, and photos of those who have fallen victim to police brutality over the past week.
