GEORGIAN FILM DIRECTOR SACKED FOR SLAMMING PRESIDENT?
Tert.am
17.08.11
A Georgian film director is reported to have lost his job for slamming
President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The Georgian Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection has confirmed
that Robert Sturua has been dismissed from the Shota Rustaveli State
Drama Theatre where he was an artistic director. No further details
are reported.
Sturua’s first spoke of his dismissal in a message on his Facebook
page. “Sacked,” he said on the social networking website, not
disclosing other facts. Later he made public a ministerial decree which
was signed on August 9 and became effective since August 15. But this
document too, gives no details on the reasons behind the decision to
sack him.
“I have [never] concealed my critical approach to the Georgian
authorities,” the director said.
In an interview with a Georgian magazine in July, Sturua said the
people in his country should call for their government’s resignation.
“The Georgian people should turn their backs on this regime as did
the Germans on Hitler. The Georgians need to repent. The authorities
need to take charge of the church to save the country. If you idolizes
the devil, your very likely to meet the evil,” he said.
Earlier, Sturua had accused President Saakashvili of demonstrating
hatred for the people.
“Well, he is an Armenian, what to do,” he told the Georgian news
agency Gruzinform.
His statement reportedly mounted a strong rage in Armenia and Georgia.
Sturua was accused of racism and xenophobia.
Robert Sturua was born in 1938 in Tbilisi. He is best known as the
stage director of plays by Shakespeare, Brecht and Chekhov. In 1982,
Sturua was honored with the title of USSR Merited Artist.
From: Baghdasarian