Ivanishvili Releases Statement ahead of April 9 Memorial Day

Founder and Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has released a statement evaluating the country's path since April 9, 1989 and summarizing the results.

Ivanishvili’s statement reads that 9 April was one of the most tragic days in the history of Georgia, but that the day has become a symbol of Georgia's struggle for freedom and independence.

The day which Ivanishvili speaks about this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the April 9 1989 tragedy, when the Soviet Union's armed forces dispersed a peaceful demonstration in the center of Tbilisi, resulting in 21 deaths, 17 of whom were women. The country also marks the 28th anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union.

“The only force that helped our nation resist the brutality of the Soviet regime and tanks was an unconditional love for our homeland,” the GD Chair said.

Ivanishvili's statement reads that on 9 April 2012, after 21 years of independence, Georgia had “overcrowded prisons, suppressed media, occupied territories and a cynical model of oriental tyranny" and claims that on 1 October 2012, the Georgian people “gained an incredible victory and the violent regime was removed without civil confrontation or a revolution.”

“For seven years now, the country has been governed by a policy of rationalism that brought a continuous foreign and civil peace that is unprecedented in the history of independent Georgia,” the statement reads.

Ivanishvili also says the authorities that came to power after the October 2012 elections provided a “high standard of democracy and increased the level of political rights.”

“It is unimaginable to fall back to the past. The only option is a rational policy, development, and democracy. The irreversibility of the advancement of the Georgian state is based only on the unification of society,” he wrote.

By Thea Morrison