President Zourabichvili Calls on Unesco to Establish Caucasian Languages International Day
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, November 16
Within the framework of a working visit in France, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili participated in a forum dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the UNESCO and called on the organization to establish an international Day of Caucasian Languages, including the Abkhaz language which faces the threat of disappearance. The event was attended by world leaders and focused on the organization’s role in coping with the modern challenges of the world.
According to Zourabichvili, cultural heritage is the target of aggression that aims to erase history and identity. As she stressed, the existing conflicts in the different parts of the world destroy not only cultural monuments but also culture itself as well as the history, the clear demonstration of which are Afghanistan and Syria.
The president stated that Georgia faces the same challenge, explaining that many medieval cathedrals, churches, and monasteries are on the verge of destruction in Russian occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions, “which only serves one purpose - to remove the traces of Georgia from our occupied territories.” Zourabichvili stressed that education in the Georgian language is banned in the occupied territories and along with cultural rights, human rights are also repressed.
The president said that hate speech, which is a major challenge of society, attacks education and intellect and forbids understanding each other.
“This is what divides us and encourages polarization. The hate speech is accompanied by false and fake information that social networks disseminate,” she stressed.
According to Zourabichvili, the document that was recently adopted by UNESCO to address the spread of hate speech on social media is the first and most important step in this direction that all countries must support.
The president focused on the Caucasian language family, which is the smallest linguistic family on the Eurasian continent, although it includes dozens of languages. She stressed that every language of the Caucasian family, except for Georgian, is under the threat of disappearance. Zourabichvili called on UNESCO to establish Caucasian Languages International Day and help these languages survive.
Within the framework of her visit, the Georgian President also participated in the Paris Peace Forum, where she spoke about the new geopolitical realities and the EU-Georgia relations. The President met with French President Emmanuel Macron and United States Vice President Kamala Harris.
