Presidential Reserve Fund allocates money to families of April 9 tragedy victims

Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili has allocated finances from his Reserve Fund to help the families of those who died or were injured in the tragic events of April 9, 1989.

The President’s Administration said about 55,000 GEL (about $24,000/€21,000*) would be distributed between the victims families.

On April 9, 1989, at least twenty people were tragically killed as Soviet troops attacked peaceful protesters in the centre of Tbilisi. Hundreds more were severely poised as the Soviet troops used toxic gas too.

"Exactly 27 years ago the Georgian nation and its best children poured their blood for the purpose of Georgia becoming independent two years later,” the President said as he paid tribute to the April 9 memorial in Tbilisi this afternoon.

He added from being independent, Georgia was now on its way to becoming free.

From dawn this morning, families of the fallen, other community members and officials gathered outside the Parliament Building to commemorate the April 9 masscare and pay tribute to the victims.

Furthermore, April 9 also marked the restoration of Georgia’s independence, as the Georgian legislative body passed a declaration of independence in 1991 based on the results of the March 31, 1991 referendum, where an overwhelming majority of Georgians voted to secede from the Soviet Union.

* (Currencies are equivalent with today's National Bank of Georgia exchange rate.)