489 recruits have made an oath to serve Georgia today at six different places including Tbilisi, Shindisi, Vardzia, Kojori, Batumi and Kutaisi.
The recruits were officially welcomed by the President of Georgia into the country’s armed forces.
"The sustainability of our nation makes it clear that Georgia is on the way to victory and will only move towards victory from now on,” President Margvelashvili said while addressing the soldiers and wider society at Freedom Square.
One of the military units at Freedom Square was presented in uniforms and equipment of first democratic republic soldiers revived with the help of researchers.
"Veterans of Armed Forces, soldiers wounded during international missions are also attending today’s ceremony. I would like to express my special appreciation to them. I bow to the people who sacrificed their lives for Georgia. Georgia will never forget their names,” Defense Minister Levan Izoria said, adding that considering the Russian occupation, the Georgian people see the country’s future in Euro-Atlantic integration.
The ceremony was accompanied by orchestra from Lithuania and the Chorus of Tbilisi State opera.
Georgian Soprano Nino Machaidze has performed the National Anthem at the oath-taking ceremony in Tbilisi which was attended by children from villages near the Administrative Boundary Lines in Abkhazia and South Ossetia currently occupied by Russia.
"Today, when two regions of Georgia are occupied, support from our friend and partner countries has great significance and I want to express my gratitude to all of them for help. This gratitude especially goes to our major strategic partner the US, the scale of cooperation with whom is becoming unprecedented. We all together, through the way of peace and reconciliation, restoring the confidence of our Ossetian and Abkhazian brothers will reach our coveted goal to live with them in a united Georgia,” PM Kvirikashvili added.
The Presidents of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Slovakia, and Armenia as well as the President of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker have attended the oath-taking ceremony and greeted the Georgian people on Independence Day.