Even in Tbilisi there are demonstrations for independence from the Soviet bloc but... but there are also demonstrations, and forcefully, against the independence of Abkhazia , a Georgian sub-region with a strong territorial identity, which insisted on total autonomy from Georgia. In fact, Abkhazia was one of the few territories to which the USSR granted cultural and linguistic autonomy, even proposing itself as an open liberator from Georgian pressure; Abkhazia, in the years of the Warsaw Pact revolutions, had been clear: if you leave the Soviet bloc and Russian influence, we will stay.
harshly, not so much for the anti-regime student data demonstrations, but for the anti-secessionist ones. In short, violence was used for that “compatriot policy” that Putin still uses today to “defend” the territories he considers to be under his influence. Even today Abkhazia is disputed between Georgia (which detests and hates Putin's Russia) and Russia.
The army attack, which did not disdain the use of chemical weapons, caused 21 deaths, almost all women and very young children, and hundreds of wounded. This event was a turning point for the independence movement of the country that declared its independence in 1991, but also the beginning of a still current tension due to Abkhaz independence, which makes Georgia fear to be the next Ukraine.