Billboards in Yerevan light up in colours of Georgian flag for Independence Day

To mark the 30th anniversary of Georgia’s Independence from the Soviet Union, at the initiative of the Georgian Embassy in Armenia, billboards in Yerevan lit up in red and white – the colours of Georgia’s national flag.

During Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s presidency on March 31, 1991 the vast majority of Georgian people across the country, including occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia, legally confirmed their support for the restoration of independence from the Soviet Union that was first declared on May 26, 1918.

• Iconic buildings around the world light up for Georgia’s 30th Independence Day

However, this was a short-lived independence as the country was re-invaded by Russia’s Bolshevik Army and absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1921. 

Seventy years later, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia once again became independent on May 26, 1991.