On Diplomacy Day, President Zurabishvili Slams Georgian Diplomats for Silence on Government’s Actions
On November 3, the Day of Georgian Diplomacy, President Salome Zurabishvili slammed Georgian diplomats for their silence over what she called the Georgian government’s “trampling of the longed-for European path” and “steps toward Russia.
“I cannot congratulate you on the day of diplomacy,” Zurabishvili wrote in a social media post. “If you don’t dare to resign, to raise your voice or to express a different opinion, what do you have left? Are you so afraid?” the president addressed Georgian diplomats.
The Day of Georgian Diplomacy, Zurabishvili said, was established 20 years ago on her initiative and is connected with the name of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, the Georgian writer and diplomat of the XVII-XVIII centuries, who reached out to Europe and sought help from European monarchs for the then King Vakhtang VI.
“We should be celebrating such an anniversary with pride! All the more so, as Sulkhan-Saba is one of the main figures of our European aspirations, of the European path, which we will only achieve through diplomacy,” she said.
But the President noted, “Peace is indeed in danger when the country does not have good diplomacy! Freedom is in danger when those who serve the country are afraid of their own shadow! And independence is in danger when those who are supposed to sound the alarm to our partners abroad do not and cannot take notice of Russia’s hybrid actions!”
She further denounced the diplomats for not working for the Georgian diaspora to facilitate their right to participate in the elections.
“History will not forget this and stop mentioning Sulkhan-Saba! His mentioning will not save you and you are casting a shadow on his name!”
Only one Georgian high-level diplomat, Georgia’s Ambassador to France, Gocha Javakhishvili, has protested against the anti-democratic actions of the government and its detachment from the West by resigning, while others have so far remained silent.
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