By Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Georgia has never had such high-scale celebrations to mark Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War as this year. May 9 is not an official holiday in the country. Europe Day has been marked on May 8 as the end of the Second World War since the times of Shevardnadze.
The Kutaisi memorial to hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in the Great Patriotic War was destroyed during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili. Officials would only appear in public on May 8, though they would usually talk more about the efforts of Georgian guerillas in Italy and France than Kursk and Stalingrad.
Celebrations at the Vaka Park, where the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers burns, were the central event this year. President Georgy Margvelashvili, Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili and Speaker of Parliament David Usupashvili laid flowers at the Eternal Flame, expressing gratitude to the few veterans there.
Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava, considered the most wise and pragmatic politician in the ex-president’s team, partook in the event. It seemed that the opposing forces were competing in flattery and thanking veterans.
The prime minister said that veterans and their families will receive donations. 28-year-old Interior Minister Alexander Chikaidze said that Georgians fighting in the ranks of the Soviet Army had been protecting their Motherland. Such words from officials could hardly be heard before.
Another sign of changes was the unprecedented attention paid by the main TV channels that had been neglecting the values of the Soviet era before. Maybe it was not the journalists but the conjuncture created by politicians that caused such a shift. So why did it change again? Maybe because the values of courage and fidelity to honour, like victory itself, are never lost.
