The President of Georgia congratulated the Georgian people and the parish of the Batumi St. Nikoloz Church on the brilliant holiday of St. George. According to Mikheil Saakashvili’s statement, this day has a special and historic meaning for Adjara, because the region was returned to the constitutional space of Georgia on exactly this day. He also touched on the ongoing rehabilitation in the last 8 years in Adjara. The President drew attention to the construction of new Churches and noted that restoring and retaining the cultural and historic monuments is absolutely necessary.

“Today is the St. George holiday. First of all I would like to congratulate everyone, including the population of Adjara, because on exactly this day the society of Adjara and the central government had defeated one of the most dangerous separatists in the history of Georgia – Aslan Abashidze and the constitutional order was restored in this region. On exactly this day we banished him from Georgia and Adjara fully returned to the official economic development space of Georgia. This is truly a historic date. This church is also a symbol of great rehabilitation. Back in the day, the Russians repainted this ancient beautiful church just like the Ilori Church in Abkhazia. We have restored this church and we are building a new church in Sarpi, on Peria Hill. We started restoring churches in 2004, as well as construction of the new church. Look at how much this neighborhood of Batumi has changed. When I was saying that it is like New Orleans, some people laughed at me and didn’t take it seriously. However, when the representatives of New Orleans came here they were astonished by the resemblance. And New Orleans is the treasure of the world. A few days ago the Mayor of Batumi went to New Orleans and now Batumi and New Orleans are brother cities. Georgians could not imagine that Batumi would turn out to be anything at all, but I always believed in these people. Of course there are still a lot of problems and poverty here, but what has been done here has eased people’s lives noticeably, even in this neighborhood. This is why it is important that all of us continue the rehabilitation process we have started together” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.