President Salome Zurabishvili’s New Year Address

President Salome Zurabishvili congratulated the nation on the New Year. 

Below is the official translation of Zurabishvili’s New Year message as provided by her office: 

“2022 ends. What has happened, happened and maybe we don’t want to delve into it now. What has been the most significant is that this year has been of utmost difficulty for our Ukrainian friends. But they’ve succeeded and have shown the world what it means to stand up, to fight to the end for independence and freedom of one’s country. The people of Georgia know very well what this struggle means, they have already walked on this tough road. This is why the people of Georgia has shown unprecedented solidarity and has expressed in every possible way that they stand by their friend. We are not fighting, but we share the future and the perspective that the struggle in Ukraine opens for us today.  

There are two categories of people in the world today. Those who believe that an era is coming to an end and that nothing is permanent in the world and in geopolitics and those who believe that a new perspective is emerging for everyone, that Russia will once and for all return to its borders and that the occupation of other countries will end. This is the perspective that the struggle in Ukraine opened for us and for which we are extremely grateful. 

This year has also been a year of great new hopes, a year of European hopes, but also of some disappointment. However, we obtained something of the utmost importance: the European Perspective, which has forever put an end to the geographical question of whether or not Georgia is in Europe. The Perspective means that everyone now agrees we are. We now just have to prove that we are driven today by our Georgian values, which are also European values. If we can prove that these values are within us, we will overcome the disappointment and 2023 will truly be the Year of Europe. 

2023 is coming. I want to congratulate all of you and wish every family in Georgia happiness, health, and success. I want you to be successful, I want peace to enter your families, and I want happiness and health to be a reality for you. 

I want to express my wish that this year will be the year of young people. The Georgian European future is for them. I wish that you not leave this country, that you return because today, this country needs you the most. 

I want to address our diaspora and wish them a very happy new year and tell them that today may be the time to return because the new European Perspective relies on you. You are the ones that can bring the very standards that we so desperately need. You should come back here because you cannot leave a void in this country that will be filled with others. 

I want to congratulate our citizens in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region for the coming year. They are in very difficult conditions today. To those who live in very dire conditions as war is spreading directly or indirectly to them, I say that we must stand our ground, we must be on your side, and we must be by your side in protecting your identity, your language, and our togetherness in every possible way. I don’t know if this will be through a Monaco or something else, but I know that we need to make it easier for you to live today, we need to reach out to you, give you citizenship documents more easily, so that you can become closer to Europe, from Georgia. 

I want to congratulate our Patriarch on this new year. We will celebrate his birthday in a few days and I want to say that he is a great hope for us in the next year and beyond. 

I want to congratulate all of you on this new year of 2023 and wish that we meet it all together with unity and solidarity.” 

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)