Estonian Ambassador to Georgia Marge Mardisalu-Kahar was summoned to the Georgian Foreign Ministry on February 24 following a social media post by the Embassy expressing support for Ilia State University (IliaUni), Georgia’s leading academic institution, which is facing significant cuts under controversial higher education reforms.
On February 22, the Estonian Embassy in Tbilisi published a post on Facebook, showing the Ambassador alongside Ilia University’s Rector Nino Doborjginidze, with a caption: “We stand with Ilia State University.” The post followed Georgian authorities’ announcement of a reshuffle of Georgian public universities under the “one city – one faculty” principle of the ongoing reform, a plan expected to leave Tbilisi’s Ilia University, the most outspoken of them, without most of its popular and highly rated programs.
Ambassador Mardisalu-Kahar was “invited” to the ministry “regarding her social media post concerning one of Georgian universities,” the MFA said in its press release. The Ministry said that during a meeting with Georgian Dream’s Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Zurabashvili, the ambassador was “asked to provide clarification regarding the purpose of such action.”
Zurabashvili “underscored that such action by the Estonian Ambassador is directed towards politicization of the ongoing reform in the education field, which is unacceptable and constitutes interference in the internal affairs of the country,” the Ministry said.
According to the press release, “the ambassador was informed that, should the Estonian side be interested in the ongoing education reform in Georgia, it has the opportunity to hold consultations with the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia, where it will receive exhaustive information on the matter.”
The summons comes amid continued diplomatic tensions between Tbilisi and its former Western allies.
It emerged in mid-February that Mardisalu-Kahar, who was appointed as Ambassador in Georgia in 2024, will end her mission on March 10 and move to Yerevan as ambassador to Armenia, while chargé d’affaires Gita Kalmet will lead the embassy in Tbilisi until a new ambassador is appointed.
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