On April 9, Georgia celebrates the Day of National Unity, Civil Accord, and Remembrance of the Victims. We are talking about 20 citizens who became victims of the dispersal of a peaceful rally by Soviet troops exactly 36 years ago. This year, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, sixth President Mikheil Kavelashvili, and representatives of the executive and legislative branches did not go with the traditional wreaths to the April 9 memorial on Rustaveli Avenue, where participants in pro-European protests had gathered. Instead, high-ranking officials took part in a memorial service for the souls of the victims in Sameba Cathedral.
Kobakhidze compared the actions of current foreign forces to the KGB, claiming that they are also trying to split Georgia. The Prime Minister believes that these evil forces are "Deep State using the European Union and the United States", but "Georgian Dream", in his opinion, will not allow them to complete their plans.
The fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, in turn, honored the memory of the victims of the tragedy of April 9, 1989 with a minute of silence. With this, she began her speech to the Czech Parliament, the key message of which was an appeal to the EU to impose sanctions against "Georgian Dream".
"Now, 36 years later, on the same day and in the same place where blood was shed for freedom, Georgians have taken to the streets again.
... For more than 140 days, they have been peacefully protesting against the silent turn away from democracy and independence," Zurabishvili said.
She emphasized that the manifestation of "Russia's hybrid war" taking place in Georgia is not only a Georgian crisis, but also a "European challenge".
"What Russia could not achieve with tanks, it is trying to achieve with hybrid forces. This does not require an army, it requires three components: electoral manipulation, disinformation-propaganda and an oligarch who seizes systems. If this hybrid approach works in Georgia, it can be repeated in other countries," Salome Zurabishvili warned.
