Saakashvili Speaks of Reunification Goals

Georgia has managed to reemerge from ruins in the past three years and now it is time to move towards the country?s final reunification, Mikheil Saakashvili said on January 25 in a speech marking the third anniversary of his presidential inauguration.

?We have achieved much more than many, even some of my co-thinkers, could imagine; but we have achieved less than we need to achieve,? Saakashvili said while addressing dozens of local residents in the center of Signagi, a town in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti.

He said that there are ?titanic and almost unimaginable obstacles? ahead for Georgia to overcome.

?We should remember that in our Tskhinvali, in this pretty Georgian town, there are criminal gangs who hold the town?s population and the population of surrounding villages hostage,? Saakashvili said.

Abkhazia, as he said, ?this most beautiful part of Georgia,? is always on his government?s mind.

?80% of the houses there are burned down and destroyed and eight out of ten people who should be living there are not residing there. Our Abkhazia is now ruled by the people who outrageously state that they will never let those people, whose ancestors are buried in Abkhazia, to return. Georgia will never tolerate to this fact,? Saakashvili said.

He said that three years ago when he was inaugurated as president Georgia was a country “on its knees.” 

?We needed at first to stand up, in order to move forward towards the country?s reunification,? Saakashvili said.

?And I want to say that we are now firmly standing on the ground; so firmly that it is almost impossible to tumble us. We have gained the strength and it is now time to move forward towards final reunification.?

?We should become the generation of the new Didgori [a site near Tbilisi where a major battle in the XII century led to the unification of Georgia]? a generation that will be remembered for many centuries, and nothing will hinder us on this way towards progress,? Saakashvili stated.

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