Georgia’s CoE Representative introduces Georgian language history to members on national day

Tamar Taliashvili, Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, on Friday introduced facts on the Georgian language and the significance of Mother Language Day to members of the Committee of Council of Europe in comments marking the national holiday.

Committee members heard from Taliashvili about the long history of Georgian writing systems, their national status of cultural heritage, and their inscription in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.

Helge Seland Representative of Norway in Council of Europe and Tamar Taliashvili, Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the CoE , Photo: Georgia in the CoE/Facebook

Marking today’s date, celebrated after the 1978 public protests in Tbilisi that forced Soviet authorities to abandon plans to strip Georgian of the status of the state language, the country’s representative said the demonstrations had preserved the role of the language among the country’s citizens and set an example for other Soviet republics.

Photo: Georgia in the CoE/Facebook

She also introduced facts about literature produced across the ages in the language to Committee officials, with representatives of CoE member states receiving cards with the names of their nations, inscribed in all three forms of the Georgian writing system, as part of the symbolic event