Georgia celebrates the Independence Day on May 26. The parade started at 11 o'clock sharp. The parade was led by the Chief of the Joint Staff of Georgia Zaza Gogava, was received by the Commander-in-Chief, the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. 2 600 military personnel and 90 pieces of military equipment participated in the parade.
Mikheil Saakashvili greeted the participants of the parade; he expressed his gratitude to the President of Poland Lekh Kachinski for his special visit in Tbilisi today.
His Holiness and Beatitude, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II attended the parade as well.
Mikheil Saakashvili greeted the population and congratulated them with the Independence Day:
"Salute everyone!
My congratulations on the Georgian Independence Day! I wish this day to become a symbol of Georgia's freedom, integrity, great future, and Euro-Atlantic future! The symbol of freedom, the welfare of each family, better healthcare, betters social conditions, better country!
Today, in a very difficult international situation, the whole world stands with us.
I want to pass a word to the President of our friendly country, our alien, one of the greatest countries in Europe, the representative of the Polish people President Lekh Kachinski to express his solidarity and the position of Europe:
After the President of Georgia finished his speech Lekh Kachinski welcomed the audience and congratulated Georgians on the Independence Day.
"I want to welcome the Presindet of Georgia, His Holiness and Beatitude, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and the audience.
Today is your Independence Day, which you gained after so many years in extremely difficult conditions.
Congratulate you on your Independence Day!
Polish people have the same experience.
You might have lost your hope, but it did not happen.
Georgia has been a free and democratic country for many years.
I want to congratulate you with recent elections, which were held with some deficiencies, but in a free environment.
This was a step forward and Mikheil Saakashvili spoke about it.
Georgia must inevitably become the NATO members, and first of all, I want to tell you that Poland expresses his solidarity to you.
I wish to express solidarity about other issues as well.
Georgia has a historically indivisible territory and no one has the right to have any pretensions concerning its territory.
We will do our best to put our share in the integration process.
First of all we must be brave, but we must not cross the boundary.
There is one more issue - the way to Europe - Poland expresses its solidarity on this occasion as well.
Step by step we are building our relations with Georgia, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, this is also the way to Europe.
This is the way to our better life, this is the way that President Saakashvili spoke about - a better life, healthcare, education, etc.
God has given us the land, the place on the political map, and we will try to deepen our friendly relations in future.
I wish you success!"
When the parade finished, the President of Georgia once again expressed his gratitude to the President of Poland for his visit and greeted thousands of Georgian soldiers and reservists, who are defending peace in Georgia, defending each of us and Georgia's future.
"I want to promise Georgia, that in spite of fights, pressure and various tricks, our country will strengthen and will get integrated.
Georgia will return its territories by all means, and it will be integrated for the happiness of all ethnic groups, representatives, for the happiness of our brothers - Abkhazs and Ossetians, because Georgia belongs to all the representatives of these groups.
Peace will come to Georgia, it will become united and finally will become strong!
I congratulate you on the Independence Day, the day of our victory!"
The event dedicated to the Independence Day of Georgia, which was taking place in front of the Parliament of Georgia, ended with the speech of the President of Georgia.
Press Office
of the President of Georgia