Interior Ministry recognises officers who protected peaceful protestors on April 9, 1989

The Interior Ministry of Georgia has thanked and awarded former police officers who stood by peaceful protestors demanding independence for Georgia on April 9, 1989, when Soviet troops forcefully tried to disperse the demonstration.

Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Kakha Sabanadze received the police officers at the ministry.

On April 9, the Georgian police – which at the time was called militsia – did not obey the Russian general and refused to get involved in the punishing operation,” Kakha Sabanadze said.

Deputy Interior Minister Sabanadze stated the Georgian police saved Georgian citizens at the cost of their own lives.

Today Georgia remembers those who lost their lives when Moscow-directed Soviet tanks dispersed a peaceful demonstration demanding independence for Georgia 30 years ago, killing at least 20 people in the process and injuring hundreds of others.

Many of those killed on April 9, 1989 were in between the ages of 16 and 31.

Read the full history behind the April 9 tragedy here.