Georgia marks 18th anniversary of death of national hero Zaza Damenia
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Georgia on Tuesday marked 18 years since the death of national hero Zaza Damenia, who saved the lives of his fellow servicemembers at the cost of his own during hostilities in the country’s now-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region in August 2004.
Paying tribute to Damenia’s memory in his hometown of Ozurgeti in Georgia’s west, representatives of the Defence Ministry and the Georgian Defence Forces offered praises of the “heroism and dedication” of the fallen soldier.
In the early years of his career, Damenia served during the 1992-1993 conflict in the north-western Georgia’s Abkhazia region in a reconnaissance unit of the armed forces.
In 2004, as part of the Commando Battalion, he was sent to another conflict zone, in central Georgia’s Tskhinvali region, to protect Georgian villages during tensions in early August of that year.
Despite injuries received two days earlier, he decided to stay on the battlefield and later used his body to cover the blast of a grenade thrown into his foxhole, saving his fellow servicemembers with the action.
He was posthumously awarded on August 24, 2004 by then-President Mikheil Saakashvili for “exceptional bravery”.
Hostilities in the Tskhinvali region in 2004 claimed the lives of 16 Georgian servicemembers.
The Georgian public on Monday marked fourteen years since the death of national hero Giorgi Antsukhelidze, a servicemember captured in the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 before being tortured and killed by Russian forces and troops of the de facto authorities of the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.
Georgia observes the 49th birthday of the country’s national hero, Zaza Damenia, who saved the lives of fellow soldiers at the cost of his own in August 2004 during hostilities in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia).