Your letter of March 6 to Prime Minister BidzinaIvanishvili, the leader of the Georgian Dream Coalition, in which you claim to be trying to save Georgia's European choice, actually distances you from Europe as we know it. From Europe, about which we dream and toward which we are making resolute steps in word (see the Georgian Dream platform and numerous statements and resolutions by the Georgian Dream after assuming power) and deed (see the reports by relevant European Commission and NATO officials on the achievements in the past four months).

I have asked many of you more than once, and I repeat now: set supreme European standards for us and appraise us against them. We are very much in need of it to free ourselves from post-communism. However, please do not set President Saakashvili and his former regime as a standard as it would be an insult to Europe.

It is a different issue if you made your statement without having read the Georgian Prime Minister's address to the President. If you have, however, where exactly did you detect threats and the use of mob to quell pro-European forces? A call to remove an unprecedented constitutional provision in the democratic world the presidential right to appoint a new government without the parliament's consent is it an act of threatening or an attempt to harmonize our constitution with European standards? Those who adopted this constitutional provision as early as 2004 and now oppose its abolition - including Mr. Saakashvili - are they pro-European forces or worthy successors to Soviet authoritarianism?

The vast majority of Georgian citizens, those who held rallies numbering hundreds of thousands of people in the election period without so much as having broken one window, while demanding to punish the instigators of violence, torture, and the state elite corruption system, are they a mob in your opinion? Could you cite at least one instance when the Georgian Prime Minister urged anyone toward violence or used hate speech against minorities? Or, maybe it is Saakashvili and his team who are the actual authors of phrases that insult and polarize our society, such as mummies, dregs, Kremlin agents, a stratum that must be annihilated, public enemies, etc.? Did Saakashvili open wide European doors by victimizing unruly parliamentarians (Gelashvili in 2005; Davitashvili in 2007), while the new government is closing these doors by launching investigations into these cases?

If these are your standards of democracy, and if you are discussing a Europe built upon these standards, then we do not know such a Europe as you see it. Your letter once again confirmed that merely residing in Europe does not guarantee commitment to European values. You reside in Europe and yet you distance yourselves from Europe by supporting Saakashvili's former police regime. This way, you probably will not hurt Europe itself, yet my small country may become yet another victim, falling prey to such Europeans.

Therefore, honorable Members of the Parliament, I urge you to abstain from signing statements based on unsubstantiated claims, as you will soon feel embarrassed for your actions, similar to your fellow partisans. Those who may already feel embarrassed for having the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly express its concernabout the replacement of the owner of a television company after the election in Georgia, only to find out later that the Imedi television company (raided by Saakashvili in 2007, taken away from its owner, and handed over to the head of his administration) had been returned to its lawful owner.

MikheilSaakashvili has already succeeded in blackmailing many both within and without the country, managing to tie their political future fully to his own dubious political future. Beware of him, lest you remain captive to stereotypes. Remain European!

David Usupashvili, Chairman, Georgian Parliament