On May 9, Victory Day, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia laid flowers at the Unknown Soldier Memorial in Vake Park in Tbilisi.
“I congratulate everyone on Victory Day over fascism. 75 years have passed since this little nation donated 300 thousand heroes for this Great Victory — Victory over fascism, over a great evil, but we often forget that Georgia made a great sacrifice,” Gakharia said.
He noted that for small Georgia, the death of 300 thousand soldiers during the war years was a huge loss.
“Therefore, we must always remember to honour their memory and remind those who forget how Georgia made this victory. Today, our veterans who are old are important, and we must take care of them,” Gakharia said.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili laid flowers at the Unknown Soldier Memorial.
The President of Georgia issued a letter dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 70th anniversary of the birth of the idea of the European Union. Zurabishvili congratulated veterans of the Second World War. She noted that after the war the foundation was laid for the idea of a perfect new format of cooperation for peace and prosperity — the European Union.
According to the Georgian State Veterans Affairs Service, Georgia gave the front 700 thousand soldiers, of which only 300 thousand returned home. Tens of thousands of Georgian residents were awarded government awards, 167 of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union. The most famous among them is Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria (1921-1993), who lifted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag along with Sergeant Mikhail Egorov in May 1945.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year Georgia does not hold large-scale celebrations on the occasion of Victory Day. Since March 21, a state of emergency has been present in the country and many restrictions have been introduced.