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TBILISI — Riot police used water cannons and tear gas against protesters taking part in the sixth consecutive night of protests in Tbilisi after the the Georgian Interior Ministry warned protesters against committing violent acts.

The ministry said on December 3 that “aggressive members” of the protest started illegal and violent actions shortly after gathering in central Tbilisi.

Special forces started dispersing demonstrators gathered in front of the parliament building after the ministry said some of them had insulted law enforcement officers and thrown various blunt objects, pyrotechnics, and inflammable items in their direction.

At around 11:30 p.m. local time, police used water cannons to move protesters away from the parliament building, pushing them in the direction of the Marriott hotel as they had done on previous nights. The special forces periodically also shot tear gas canisters.

Police officers responded by directing water cannons at the protesters, some of whom danced in the stream of water while others sheltered under umbrellas.

The Caucasus country has been rocked by demonstrations since the ruling Georgian Dream party announced last week it would halt accession talks on Georgia’s application to join the European Union.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has refused to back down and threatened to punish political opponents, whom he accuses of being behind violence that has occurred at the protests.

The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi earlier on December 3 blasted the Georgian Dream party for taking decisions that have cost the country Western support and sparked the demonstrations.

Georgia has been thrown into turmoil since parliamentary elections in October in which Georgian Dream secured 54 percent of the vote. The opposition and Western governments argued that the poll was marred by violations and Russian influence.

Kobakhidze has blamed the unrest on foreign “instructors” and tried to explain the decision to halt EU accession talks through 2028 by saying Georgia is ready for the talks, “but only with dignity and justice and without blackmail.”

The U.S. Embassy responded by saying, “Don’t blame others” in a post on Facebook, noting it was Georgian Dream that stopped the EU membership process and that the party was to blame for a decision by Washington to halt a strategic partnership between the two countries.

The embassy statement came hours after security forces dispersed demonstrators on the fifth night of protests in Tbilisi using tear gas and water cannons.

In a change of tactics, several hundred protesters on December 3 left Tbilisi’s Chavchavadze Avenue near the state university as police in balaclavas massed in the area following nightlong clashes with demonstrators outside the parliament building, where they have gathered each night since November 28, when the ruling Georgian Dream party declared its decision on EU talks.

Georgian security forces’ use of excessive violence against protesters has prompted a wave of outrage in the country and abroad, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte calling it “deeply concerning.”

At a news conference in Brussels ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers, Rutte said NATO members “urge the Georgian government to stay on the path” toward “more EU and NATO integration.”

“The reports of violence are deeply concerning, and I condemn them unequivocally,” he said.

Twenty-six people, including 23 protesters and three members of the security forces needed hospitalization after the clashes on the night of December 1, Georgia’s Health Ministry said on December 3.

“None of the injuries are life threatening,” the ministry added in a statement.

The Interior Ministry said 224 protesters were detained on administrative charges and three on criminal charges. In addition, three police officers were hospitalized and 113 others have required medical treatment, the ministry said on December 2.

Georgian pro-European President Salome Zurabishvili, who has sided with the protesters, said on X that many of the arrested protesters had injuries to their heads and faces. Some people were subjected to systematic beatings between arrest and transportation to detention facilities, she added.

Writing on X on December 3, she said force had been used “disproportionately” against the protesters, while Georgia’s ombudsman accused police of torturing pro-EU protesters.

Levan Ioseliani, whose role is to defend citizens’ rights, said he and his officials had met people subjected to “the harshest treatment” by police.

“In most cases, they have received serious injuries in the face, eye and head area, which practically excludes even the possibility that the police used the necessary, proportional force against them every time,” he said in a statement.

“The location, character, and degree of the injuries create a credible impression that the police use violent methods against citizens in order to punish them. Intentional, severe violence for the purpose of punishment constitutes an act of torture.”

Kobakhidze has claimed that protests were “funded from abroad” and vowed “there will be no revolution in Georgia.”

Western governments have questioned Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October in which Georgian Dream claimed 54 percent of the vote, arguing the elections were marred by violations and Russian influence.

Zurabishvili says people wanted free elections, not revolutions.

Kobakhidze said earlier that Zurabishvili must leave office at the end of her term later this month. His announcement came despite her pledge to stay in office “until a president is legitimately elected.”

Zurabishvili and the opposition have alleged fraud and other improprieties and refuse to recognize the new parliament, which last week scheduled an indirect election for a new president for December 14 despite ongoing legal challenges.

One of those challenges suffered a setback on December 3 when Georgia’s Constitutional Court declined to hear a lawsuit seeking to annul the election results.

The case was brought forward by the pro-EU Zurabishvili, whose powers are mostly ceremonial. Her term ends next month.

A majority of Georgians support EU membership, and efforts to join the bloc are mandated in the Georgian Constitution.

But the ruling Georgian Dream’s enactment this year of what Zurabishvili and critics call a “Russian law” clamping down on NGOs and media financed from abroad, as well as a controversial bill on LGBT rights and public attacks on the West by Kobakhidze and other officials, have raised fears the current government is leading the country back into Russia’s orbit.

Georgia received EU candidate status in December 2023 but relations with Brussels have soured in recent months, beginning with the adoption of the controversial “foreign agent” law, which critics say threatens to publicly discredit thousands of media outlets and civil society groups as “serving” outside powers.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters