Georgian Defence Ministry dismisses president’s words that Georgia ‘has no army, weapons’

The Georgian Defence Ministry has responded to the statement of Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili made yesterday while meeting with scientists that Georgia ‘has no army, weapons and we will not have them, but we have a strong weapon - knowledge, science and culture.’ 

The Georgian army is strong and we have devoted soldiers,” the Defence Ministry has stated earlier today.

The Defence Ministry says that Zurabishvili's statement is “absolutely unacceptable” for Defence Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

As the minister of defence, I want to say that we have soldiers we can be proud of and the government is doing its utmost to have an even more powerful army,” the statement reads. 

President Zurabishvili has faced sharp criticism by the opposition for her yesterday's statement. Photo: President's press office. 

Zurabishvili stated yesterday that Georgia has no army and weapons and is unlikely to have them in the future.

We do not also have a high economic potential. However, we have a weapon of power which is knowledge, science and culture.” 

The opposition said that Zurabishvili’s statement was “shameful and anti-state.” 

The ruling party MP Irakli Sesiashvili said that everyone must be cautious while mentioning the army.

 Fellow MP of the party Sophio Kiladze stated that the president is likely to have failed to correctly say what she meant. 

Kiladze said that Zurabishvili wanted to say that education should be a key priority of the state.