TBILISI, June 20. /TASS/. Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia has called on thousands of demonstrators storming the parliament building in Tbilisi, to submit to the police.

"First of all, I call upon every citizen standing there and maybe expressing a fair protest, to submit to police orders. What is happening can be described as a storming of government facilities," Gakharia told reporters on Thursday.

Several thousand demonstrators, together with opposition representatives, are protesting since Thursday evening and trying to storm the parliament in Tbilisi. People demand resignation of Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Parliament Chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze.

Demonstrations followed the participation of Russian State Duma member Sergey Gavrilov and other Russian delegates in the 26th session of the General Assembly of the International Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) in Tbilisi. On Thursday morning, Gavrilov opened the session as the IAO president. Opposition Georgian parliament members condemned Gavrilov for addressing the delegates while sitting down in a chair of the parliament chairperson. Opposition representatives then picketed the rostrum and the chair of the parliament speaker and did not allow the session to continue.

A decision was made later to finish the session, and for the Russian delegation to leave. Representatives of the ruling party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" said that they did not know that Gavrilov would open the session and think that the protocol was broken.