Georgian and U.S. flags waved on Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue on Monday evening as a small group of Georgian activists used the U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Armenia to draw international attention to Georgia’s inner political crisis.
The demonstration unfolded as Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Vance at the Presidential Palace. The visit comes as the United States seeks to finalize a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, placing Washington at the center of a fragile postwar settlement effort.
Nino Svanidze, one of the Georgian activists, said the group had traveled from Tbilisi to draw attention to what they described as a democratic backsliding in Georgia.
“We are living under a Russian-influenced regime, not in a country moving toward the European Union,” she said.“We have more than 100 political prisoners, and some of us standing here have been jailed as well.”
With mass protests in Georgia met by police violent response, arrests, and restrictions on political opposition, Georgians have found new avenues outside their home to draw international attention.
“We are trying to deliver a message to the vice president that we stand with the United States and share democratic western values,” said Marika Svanishvili, a Georgian demonstrator.
The Georgian demonstration came shortly after an Armenian rally calling on the U.S. to pressure Azerbaijan to release detainees captured during and after the Artsakh war, a sensitive issue still unresolved between Yerevan and Baku.
Georgian demonstrators on Baghramyan Avenue, Yerevan, Armenia, Feb. 9, 2026, photo by Anna Avagyan
Further reporting by Anna Avagyan, Anna Eganyan, Goharik Hovhannisyan