"It was not my initiative to begin this all. You know it well - Kokoiti threatened us with his statement and the aggression started. The aim of this aggression was not only the attack on the gorge, but the aim was the occupation of Georgia, in absolutely the same way, what Russians did in 1921. Yesterday they were coming to Tbilisi, they were near Igoeti and they still are in Igoeti. And if not your heroism and the heroism of our society, if not the reaction of the whole world, we would not be able to attract so much attention. In 1992-1993 Russians did not do one hundredth of what they did now and no one was interested. Today every channel, every network in the world and the world leaders are ready to defend Georgia. We will not give Russians our houses or our villages. We are Georgians and the whole world is focused on us. We are multiethnic Georgia, where Ossetians, Georgians and Abkhazs are just the same. First we will get rid of Russians from our villages and towns and I give you my word, I swear, that these occupants, interventionists will go away from the Georgian territory. Tskhinvali was bombed and Ossetians are demolished. These people wanted to invade Georgia. I want you to know one thing - we will reconstruct everything, you will live in better houses, in better towns. And we will be able to do this soon. You remember the situation in Georgia in 1992, there was no running water, no electricity, there was no gasoline, the state was not functioning at all. Today they were not able to destroy our statehood. Everything is functioning, as soon as these people leave the Georgian territory, the reconstruction works will start immediately, we will do our best and will reconstruct our country. They wanted to destroy Georgia. We will restore cities and towns, and these villages and towns will become incomparable with other towns in the world. We will raise our children in the best possible conditions. We will show the whole world what Georgia and the Georgian people represent. Do not be afraid of anything. It's most important that we are alive, no one will be left without housing and income. We will restore what they destroyed and we will do our business to the end. Our people were able to express incredible heroism during these days. Russians put every country, they entered by force like this on the knees. This happened in Czechoslovakia, in Hungary and Afghanistan. Look how we are resisting. They are wandering in our villages and towns, they could not find anyone to rely on, they couldn't defeat the government and the society. They couldn't defeat our society. Our society raised up flags, and this is very important. They couldn't defeat our Armed Forces, because they are standing around Igoeti. They couldn't disarm us, we maintained all our armament and equipment. Their aim is to destroy Georgia, to destroy our society and to raze it to the ground. They couldn't achieve it and will never be able to. Now our stopwatch is on, their main forces must leave our territory, because we need to start returning our people to their places. We have to achieve this first and then they have to leave the whole country, every single region of Georgia. The whole world will stand beside us, we all have to stand firm and maintain unity. Now there is only one question - the whole world is united, will Georgia be united in the future as well? Our unity is our key. This is our message to the whole world. We will be united and no one will be able to defend us, if we split, the whole world will turn their back to us. The whole world supports us, because the whole Georgia is united now. Incredible amount of humanitarian assistance comes to Georgia. Various demonstrations are taking place near Russian embassies around the world. Georgia will strengthen very soon and our life will become two or three times better. We are sure it will be so. When I look at you I know that you have been humiliated, you are the most important people now, you are the most precious people in the whole world now. I know pretty well what you were able to stand during these years. The main reason of these barbarians was to break you, that they could not achieve. If they cant brake us, they wont be able to break the world. If they destroy us, then we all will see the misfortune. These people now browse on the Georgian territory and beg. They stop their tanks and ask for bread. Where all these people were raised? We are better because we have dignity and humanism, simply they are more than us. We have to overcome this disease once and forever, if we wish to be a normal country. Their plans were not realized, they are razed to the ground. We have to use it all in the interests of our country.

We will rebuild Gori, so that there will be no better place in all the region. We will return to Mejvriskhevi and more than that, we will very soon return to Abkhazia. They knew that we would return everywhere and this is why they decided to raze even Tbilisi to the ground. They decided to destroy Georgia. Georgia will survive now and return everything. The world is watching us now and everyone knows what our fight was. This is not a conflict. This is a war between civilization and non-civilization", stated the President of Georgia.

Press Office
of the President of Georgia