SAAKASHVILI: I AM ARMENIAN, AZERI, OSSETIAN, JEWISH AND 100% GEORGIAN
Written by Sandro Gagua

Abkhazia, CA
May 24 2007

President Saakashvili complained on May 24 about the international
community’s silence on continued human rights abuses in Georgia’s
breakaway regions.

"Two months ago Georgian books from all the schools in Gagra [a town
in breakaway Abkhazia] were publicly burned in the town centre. Where
was the international community at that time and why didn’t anyone
say anything? If we allow the existence of such an ideology, wherein
some one can’t return home just because of ethnic background, it
means that not only do we not have a state, but it also means that
humankind has a serious problem," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili was speaking at an international conference on
globalization and dialogue among civilizations, which was opened in
Tbilisi on May 24.

In his opening remarks, he also spoke about the importance of tolerance
in multiethnic Georgia.

"When I was in opposition, I said it and I’ll say it again and again:
for those people, who hate Armenians in Georgia, I will be Armenian;
for those who hate Azerbaijanis, I will be Azerbaijani. Recently,
someone said I was Ossetian, which I take as a compliment. Of course,
it would be a great honour for me to be Jewish," Saakashvili said.