Campaign for Recognition of Russian Genocide of Georgians Opens on May 24
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Freedom Institute, Tabula, Voter Education Society, European Georgia, and the Abkhaz Assembly are launching a campaign to recognize the 1992-1993 genocide of Georgians committed by Russia.
The campaign opens on May 24, at 21:00 with an interactive exposition of the Georgian Genocide - “There was Abkhazia before Butcha” is hosted by Tbilisi night-club KHIDI. Organizers promise visitors the individual and unexaggerated experience of horrific atrocities committed by Russia, which have claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and endured hundreds of thousands of displaces persons.
“We firmly believe that in every society the past of this society speaks. In order to draw the right conclusions about the present and the future, the enemy and the lover, the good and the bad, we must understand and remember the past.”
War crimes committed by Russia in Bucha, Mariupol, Irpen, Gostomel, and other Ukrainian cities have been declared genocide by the President of the United States and a number of other world leaders. Estonia, Latvia, and Canada have officially recognized the genocide of Ukrainians.
Citing horrific stories collected from people who lived through the war, authors of the campaign write that many people forget, many do not even know that before Bucha and Mariupol there was Gagra and Ochamchire.
“At that time, the international community was celebrating the victory over the Soviet Union, the ‘end of history’, and was not ready to give an adequate response to the wicked tail of the evil empire. But the bigger problem is that our society does not even realize the horrible scale of the crimes committed by Russia against humanity in Georgia.
In order for Georgian democracy to win over the enemy, our citizens must know well who the enemy is, what he has done to us and what he is doing to us, and why and how we are fighting him. Because the success of democracy rests with informed citizens whom you cannot easily deceive.”
These organizations believe that a permanent exhibition on the genocide of Georgians by Russia should be in the Museum of Occupation and become part of the high school curriculum, but they think it will be feasible only after ‘defeating the Russian vassal regime’. Before that, they invite citizens to visit the club KHIDI (Third Floor - Exhibition Space, Vakhushti Bridge, Right Bank) for a 3-day exhibition, which will open on May 24 at 21:00 and close on May 26 at 18:00.
