Defence Minister Meets Veterans
Monday, February 11
The meeting was held with veterans at the Ministry of Defence of Georgia on Friday. Defence Minister Irakli Alasania talked with them about their rights and the social protection package which should be designed in future.
Upon Defence Ministry`s initiative, Interagency Commission was set up in the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Protection. It will define the structure of Veterans Affairs Department. The Commission also works on veterans` social protection mechanisms. Defence Minister asked the veterans to form a special group that will take part in the work of Interagency Commission. Irakli Alasania underlined that likewise military servicemen, veterans should be far from politics and participate only in the development of veterans-related policy directions.
“One of the important priorities of the Georgian government and Defence Ministry is to create appropriate living conditions for our veterans, for those people, who sacrificed their lives and health to our country. Today`s meeting just aimed at allowing the veterans to engage in elaborating relevant policy directions. Unfortunately, there was not such politics in Georgia before. We have already set up a special inter-agency group, in the work of which the veterans will be able to take part. In the coming days the group will define the structure of Veterans Affairs Department, including the proposals about the legal framework which is needed for their social protection and to develop their institutional and legal guarantees,” said Irakli Alasania.
Defence Minister also presented another initiative to the veterans over which the former officers of Mod and GAF will also work. As he said, the reasons of both military success and failure had never been analyzed before. Therefore every action carried out at the strategic, operative and tactical levels must be closely studied. The mistakes made in the past as well as veterans` experience will be taken into consideration in the future defence doctrine in order to prevent older mistakes.
Deputy Defence Ministers, Chief of Joint Staff of GAF Col. Irakli Dzneladze and his deputies attended the meeting.
(mod.gov.ge)
