Irakli Kobakhidze

Irakli Kobakhidze (born 25 September 1978) is a Georgian constitutional scholar and politician, serving as Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia from 2016 to 2019 and Member of Georgian Parliament since 2016. He is a chairman of Georgian Dream party and professor at the Tbilisi State University. From 2020 to 2022, Kobakhidze served as vice-president of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Irakli Kobakhidze was born on 25 September 1978 in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. Kobakhidze's father was involved in politics since the 1990s, being a member of National Democratic Party and Democratic Movement – United Georgia. Irakli graduated from the Law Faculty of Tbilisi State University in 2000. Later, from 2002–2006, he advanced his legal education at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, where he was awarded the LLM and PhD degrees.
Since 2006, Kobakhidze has worked with international organizations and academic institutions. For several years, he held expert and managerial positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Simultaneously, he held academic positions at the Tbilisi State University and Caucasus University.
Political track record
In 2015, Kobakhidze was appointed as Executive Secretary of Georgia's ruling party Georgian Dream. In this position, he, together with Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of the party, implemented inner-party reforms mainly focused on strengthening regional structures and renewing the political team of the party. He was the deputy campaign manager for the 2016 parliamentary elections and the campaign manager for the 2017 municipal elections, thus playing an important role in the remarkable electoral success of the party in these years. In 2016, Kobakhidze was elected to Georgian Parliament by party list, bloc: "Georgian Dream".
Chairman of Parliament
On 18 November 2016, he was appointed as Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia. Under Kobakhidze's leadership, the Parliament of Georgia strengthened its international ties – the Parliament was actively involved in the implementation of the non-recognition policy of the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia; the Parliamentary Assemblies of Georgia-Ukraine-Moldova and Georgia-Poland were established; strategic cooperation agreements were signed with a number of the Parliaments of the partner countries.
Constitutional reform
In 2017–2018, under his leadership, Georgian Parliament implemented a wide-scale constitutional reform. Kobakhidze served as Chairman of the State Constitutional Commission and the editor of the Constitution of Georgia. The reform established a parliamentary system of government in Georgia. The same amendments transitioned Georgia's parliamentary elections to a fully proportional system by 2024, increased Prime Minister's executive powers, abolished direct presidential elections, strengthened the role of the Parliament and the political rights of the opposition, advanced the constitutional guarantees of human rights, independence of the judiciary and local self-government, stipulated that Georgia should be a welfare state, reinforced Georgia's pro-EU and pro-NATO foreign policy and banned foreign ownership of agricultural land and a same-sex marriage.
Resignation
Kobakhidze made the decision to resign from the chairmanship during the 2019 Georgian protests. He continued to serve as a member of parliament.
Chairman of Georgian Dream
On 11 January 2021, Irakli Kobakhidze was elected as a new chairman of the Georgian Dream party. In this position he led party to the victory in the 2021 Georgian local elections.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kobakhidze expressed support for Ukraine and condemned Russia's actions. However, he also criticized statements made by Ukrainian officials which urged Georgia to open "second front" against Russia. For example, the Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that Georgia would "greatly help" Ukraine by "opening a second front" against Russia. Kobakhidze criticized Ukrainian officials for pursuing their own interests at the expense of Georgia, saying that "opening a second front" would alleviate Ukraine's situation, but bring suffering and destruction to Georgia as Russia's army is considerably stronger and well-equipped compared to Georgia's. Kobakhidze said that Georgia had the military means to "make the situation worse for Russia", but doing so would "come at the cost of destroying Georgia". Kobakhidze later elaborated that there was a coordinated effort by "Global War Party" (a concept similar to Dwight D. Eisenhower's Military–industrial complex) to drag Georgia into the war.
In June 2022, European Parliament passed several resolutions against Georgian government and refused to grant Georgia a candidate status. Kobakhidze criticized these actions and said that they were influenced by the effort of this "Global War Party" to push Georgia into the war.
Some media outlets accused Kobakhidze of being "anti-European" and "anti-American" by saying that the West is pushing Georgia into the war and "opening a second front".
Kobakhidze stated that Georgia would not deviate of its path of EU membership and that it would continue the process of EU integration, while calling the US and EU to "distance themselves from calls for Georgia to engage in war".
References
External links
1978 births
Politicians from Tbilisi
Speakers of the Parliament of Georgia
Georgian Dream politicians
Living people
Tbilisi State University alumni
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf alumni