Saakashvili promotes multiethnic Georgia on visit to patriotic youth camp
Imedi TV, Tbilisi
2 Jun 05
[Presenter] The Georgian president, together with the
catholicos-patriarch of all Georgia, is currently visiting the Bazaleti
youth camp [north of Tbilisi]. As well as [ethnic] Georgian children,
67 ethnic Armenian youths from Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki are on
holiday at Bazaleti.
Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the Georgian and Armenian youths in
Georgian and Russian.
[Passage omitted: the patriarch presented a book to the camp and
invited children to write an essay entitled “One God, one motherland”]
The president and the patriarch posed for photographs together with
the children.
The president was wearing the camp uniform [blue-and-orange uniform
and a blue baseball cap, with the Georgian flag and the word “patriot”
inscribed on them]. [Passage omitted]
[Saakashvili, recording starts in mid-sentence] – that exists in these
camps is a feeling of pride in our country. Our motherland is the sum
of all its citizens. It belongs equally to everyone living in Georgia,
irrespective of their ethnic origin – Georgians, Armenians, Ossetians,
Azerbaijanis, Abkhaz, Russians and everyone else who considers Georgia
their motherland, who believe that they will spend the rest of their
lives here, on the land where they were born, and who are ready to
defend this land and contribute to its development.
I hope that you will learn a lot here and make friends with each
other. I hope that you will be able to do it. The programme is
very busy. I know that you have very good group leaders and many
interesting activities are being planned, such as finding your way
through the mountains and forest without a compass, swimming lessons,
rowing and, naturally, a lot of active recreation. There will be
television sets in every tent. These are presidential camps and I
am watching what is happening here very closely, so that you have
the best possible conditions, there is order and discipline, and you
enjoy your stay here.
[switches to Russian] I would like to greet all of you again and
repeat that Georgia is a multiethnic country. All our citizens –
we are equally proud of each of you.