Protesters clear Tbilisi Rustaveli Avenue after talks with interior minister

Several hundred Georgian protesters, who rallied against police raids on Tbilisi’s top music clubs, have cleared the Rustaveli avenue after nearly six hour-long standoff with a group of hardline nationalists and conservatives, Civil.ge reported.

According to the source, the protesters against the police raids, agreed to cease the demonstration shortly after midnight as their leaders agreed with Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia that they would scrutinize the May 12 operation together and resume work on drug policy reform.

Initially, the protesters refused to accept the terms, but the group agreed on the deal after Minister Gakharia addressed the group personally and apologized for the police’s handling of Friday’s operation.

The Interior Minister also offered to the protesters to “move to a working mode,” and invited their representatives to a meeting the following day to “discuss every single minute of Friday’s police operation.”

To remind, large-scale rallies kicked off on May 12 in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi with the slogan "For Our Freedom,” protesting the raid in nightclubs, accusing the police of using excessive force and demanding a change of the state drug policy. They also demanded the resignation of the prime minister and interior minister.