The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili attended the opening ceremony of a renovated Synagogue. The President of Georgia made a speech at the opening of renovated Synagogue and stressed his attention on the existing friendship between the two countries. He said that this day represents a symbol of firm path. As the President pointed out Georgia belongs to all ethnic groups and this is the ideology that has always been and that there are no privileged ethnic group and no privileged religious group, because there are patriots among Orthodox Christians as well as Muslims and Judaists.

"In this most beautiful part of Tbilisi there are two Synagogues, a Mosque, the Georgian Orthodox and Armenian churches. People of various religions live here, they speak Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, Jewish. Some of them do not even know which ethnic group representatives they are. This is a special wealth and strength of Georgia. It was impossible to defeat such people even by the most aggressive enemies. The aggressors came and left, these people always stayed in Georgia. Strengthening of Georgia and their unification is based upon the strength of people of various religions and ethnic origins.

Several years ago I visited the Synagogue in Oni. In spite of the fact that at the beginning of the 90ies the majority of the Jews left Oni forever, the local population in Racha makes kosher wine, their local chorus sing beautiful Jewish songs and they keep their traditions without ethnic Jews. This is a very special case and only few people can do it. I want everyone to understand what is modern ideology of Georgia and what was the ideology of Georgia in the times of the greatest and strongest King David the Builder. These two are in connection. Modern Georgia has a very concrete ideology - there are no privileged ethnic groups in Georgia. Georgia belongs to all ethnic groups, who are patriots of this country, live here, work and are ready to die for Georgia. Georgia belongs to ethnic Georgians, ethnic Ossetians, ethnic Azeri, ethnic Russians, ethnic Abkhazians - to all those people, who live in Georgia for centuries.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia