On War Anniversary Georgian Leaders Speak of Peace, Reunification

On the seventh anniversary of the August 2008 war, PM Irakli Garibashvili said “peace has no alternative” and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that “occupation lines” will eventually crumble and the country will be reunited through “reconciliation”.

The President and PM visited separately on Saturday military cemetery at Mukhatgverdi in Tbilisi outskirts to pay tribute to Georgian soldiers fallen in the war. 166 Georgian army servicemen, 14 police officers and over 220 civilians died as a result of the August 2008 war.
 
PM Garibashvili told journalists that “wounds of August 2008 war remain unhealed.”

“Peace has no alternative. If we want to reintegrate these territories and to live together with our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers in peace, there is only one way to achieve this – through peaceful negotiations, through confidence building,” he said.

“Of course we should continue prudent policy with Russia, but of course we will be very firm and principled, because these are our territories, territories bequeathed by our ancestors and the Georgian people will never tolerate [losing of these territories],” Garibashvili said.

He said that consequences of the war were grave. “Thousands of displaced people, over 100 lost villages, 20 percent of our territories occupied, and recognition of [breakaway regions] by Russia. Occupation continues. Our government tries to stop this process through prudent policies,” the PM said.

President Margvelashvili told journalists: “Today we remember heroes, who sacrificed their lives for maintaining Georgia’s statehood, and at the same time, we think even more thoroughly about the mistakes and think about what should be done,” President Margvelashvili said.

“Georgia will be united, strong state; we will do it not at the expense of human lives, but through common policy,” he said. “Earlier this year we launched discussions and consultations within the Georgian society, political parties and non-governmental organizations about where we all should be united regardless of political affiliations to pursue coordinated policy towards Georgia’s unification.”

“Georgia should be united and it should unite not through blood and confrontation, but through love and friendship. This process is underway and it will definitely yield success and results,” President Margvelashvili said.

Also on August 8, the President traveled to the village of Nikozi in an immediate vicinity of the breakaway South Ossetia’s administratively boundary, where he attended a church service in memory of those fallen in the war. 
 
“We are in several hundred meters from Tskhinvali; artificial occupation line divides us – the line which we will cross through reconciliation,” the President told journalists in Nikozi.

“Occupation is anomaly and injustice of history, which will not be tolerated either by Georgia or the international community,” he said. “There have been numerous such artificial lines throughout history, but I guarantee that this line will be destroyed.”