Georgian president calls on UNESCO to establish Caucasian languages day, including Abkhaz
Salome Zurabishvili travelled to France to attend the Paris Peace Forum and the UNESCO's 75th anniversary. Photo: Shot from UNESCO video
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Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who recently attended an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of UNESCO, has called on the organisation to establish an international Day of Caucasian Languages, which also would include Abkhaz.
We should save these languages as well as ban the hate speech”, she addressed the international audience.
President Zurabishvili has addressed the international community in French:
In addressing @UNESCO, I am calling for the international community to raise awareness and establish the International Day of Caucasian Languages to remind the world that languages like #Abkhazian need protection to survive.#UNESCO75 pic.twitter.com/x6N2v1UVRy
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) November 12, 2021
In her address, Salome Zurabishvili spoke about the grave humanitarian situation in the two Russian-occupied Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia), which also affects the culture on the ground.
It is now forbidden to receive education in Georgian language as none of the schools teach in Georgian”, President Zurabishvili said, noting that the Abkhaz language is also facing threats there.
Salome Zurabishvili believes that UNESCO - as the United Nations specialised agency aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, sciences and culture – is capable to respond to the challenges that the modern world is facing today.
Thank you @EmmanuelMacron for a warm welcome tonight at the @Elysee and at the @ParisPeaceForum ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/B1zTr3IIDa
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) November 11, 2021
Earlier the Georgian President joined the world leaders at the Paris Peace Forum, where she met with French President Emmanuel Macron and United States Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as spoke about the new geopolitical realities and the EU-Georgia relations.
"Georgia's main victory is its unwavering European orientation."
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) November 12, 2021
My closing statement at the @ParisPeaceForum pic.twitter.com/DgbXYIhd0S
Hosting over 50 world leaders on November 11-13, the Paris Peace Forum focused on 'spurring a more solid and inclusive recovery by addressing the various gaps in global governance, offering initiatives to better tend to the global commons, and putting forward new principles of action for the post-Covid world'.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has congratulated the public on Abkhaz Language Day earlier today. Garibashvili emphasised that the Abkhaz language along with Georgian ‘is protected by the Constitution of Georgia and the state has a special obligation to preserve and develop it.’
The Georgian national flag is flying at half-mast today as 28 years ago on September 27 Georgia lost control over the region of Abkhazia, which is currently occupied by Russia. Paying tribute to the victims of the armed conflict, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he believes the ‘Georgian government will be able to overcome the severe consequences of the war and will work for the common future, peace and prosperity of the Abkhaz and Georgian people’.
Students of all grades in Georgia’s Russian-occupied, mostly ethnic-Georgian-inhabited Gali district will have to receive secondary education in Russian, the de facto Abkhaz Education Ministry has decided.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated at today’s governmental meeting that the Georgian Dream government is creating a state program to protect and develop the Abkhazian language, the language of the Georgian region which is now occupied by Russia.
French Business Confederation (MEDEF) members have been introduced to Georgian business environment and investment opportunities by Georgian officials. Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who hosted the MEDEF members at the Administration of the Government of Georgia, discussed Georgia's unique location, strategic partnerships, and free trade agreements with the EU, the Commonwealth of Independent States, China, and Turkey.
An exhibition of previously unseen photographs of public figures taken in Georgia’s Russian-occupied north-western Abkhazia region, and a screening of a film on the province’s cultural heritage have been hosted in Tbilisi as part of celebrations of Abkhazia Day on Monday.
Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Thursday said the government would work to study and promote the Abkhaz language in comments marking the national date of Abkhaz Language Day.
The state of cultural heritage in Georgia’s occupied regions and the country’s biodiversity topics were discussed on Thursday by the Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili and Audrey Azoulay, the director general of UNESCO, the president's press office said.