President Salome Zurabishvili, in her capacity as Commander-in-Chief and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, sparred at the ceremony dedicated to the Day of the Georgian Army today. President Zurabishvili issued a strong rebuke to the officials’ rhetoric at yesterday’s rally organized by the ruling Georgian Dream. Prime Minister Kobakhidze refused to acknowledge the President and called her “a traitor.”
President Zurabishvili’s address
Commander-in-Chief has addressed the troops, saying one shall not confuse the enemies for friends, and called the ruling party for its “global party of war” conspiracy. The text of the address follows:
“If some want to portray our allies and partners of thirty years as a faceless and mysterious “party of war” that is inviting Georgia to join the adventurism or confrontation – this is a big lie and doing conscious harm!
We, and you first of all, know very well, and that is not only based on these past thirty years, who has been the restless enemy of Georgian statehood and independence, who fought the Georgian language from the 19th century, who fought the Georgian church and faith, and who obstructed any attempt at Georgian independence.
Preaching today that the enemy is not our enemy and that an ally is not an ally, is like denying that mother is a mother and father is a father!
The Georgian Army knows best who trained it, who accepted our cadets in military academies, who stood by us when we needed it, when we needed equipment, and many other things, and who is still standing by our side.
At the time, when the country is at a crossroads and is facing the existential choice – to be or not to be, because being without liberty is the same as not existing, it is our common duty to seek the roads to unity, to show resilience, alertness, readiness, and show an example of loving our motherland. Those who sow the seeds of confrontation and provocation – they are against the army and the motherland, those who seek unity – they are betting on this country’s future, on its youth!
I want to thank you for the victories past and the future. The path of our victory is not through war, but through peace. Peaveful Georgia can only be thought in the harbor of Europe, in the community of equals. You are standing at the defense of this future!
Long live the Georgian Army, each soldier! Long live the heroes who fell defending the country’s independence, sovereignty and liberty! Their memory is eternal!
Hurrah to all who, for centuries, stood where you stand today, who had faith in what you believe today, and who would defend tomorrow’s strong, unified, European Georgia! Long live Georgia!”
PM Irakli Kobakhidze
PM started his intervention by saying: “I will not deign to respond to the political statements that were completely inappropriate for today’s celebration and to the high office of the president. Everyone will respond before God for breaking the oath to the Constitution and for high treason.”
He went on to congratulate the army on its 33-year anniversary.
“Caring for our Army and our military, recognizing their sacrifice in a dignified way, is one of the priorities and duties of this government. We are proud of our Army, which is an indivisible part of our national identity. Army is a grand family that belongs to every Georgian citizen and unites them.”
