Georgia’s CoE Representative introduces Georgian language history to members on national day
Marking today’s date, celebrated after the 1978 public protests in Tbilisi that forced Soviet authorities to abandon plans to strip Georgian of the status of the state language, the country’s representative said the demonstrations had preserved the role of the language among the country’s citizens and set an example for other Soviet republics. Photo: Georgia in the CoE/Twitter
Tweet 
Share
Tamar Taliashvili, Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, on Friday introduced facts on the Georgian language and the significance of Mother Language Day to members of the Committee of Council of Europe in comments marking the national holiday.
Committee members heard from Taliashvili about the long history of Georgian writing systems, their national status of cultural heritage, and their inscription in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.
Helge Seland Representative of Norway in Council of Europe and Tamar Taliashvili, Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the CoE , Photo: Georgia in the CoE/Facebook
Marking today’s date, celebrated after the 1978 public protests in Tbilisi that forced Soviet authorities to abandon plans to strip Georgian of the status of the state language, the country’s representative said the demonstrations had preserved the role of the language among the country’s citizens and set an example for other Soviet republics.
Photo: Georgia in the CoE/Facebook
She also introduced facts about literature produced across the ages in the language to Committee officials, with representatives of CoE member states receiving cards with the names of their nations, inscribed in all three forms of the Georgian writing system, as part of the symbolic event
Bjørn Berge, the Deputy Secretary General of Council of Europe, on Friday congratulated Georgian institutions, officials and citizens on the Mother Language Day by highlighting the “important historical background” of the date.
Institutions, officials and citizens in Georgia are marking Mother Language Day today, with the date commemorating mass protests that forced Soviet authorities in 1978 to abandon plans to strip Georgian of the status of the official language.
The story of the UNESCO-recognised writing systems of the Georgian alphabet is now on display at Google Arts and Culture, a major online repository of museum exhibits and cultural phenomena.
The Georgian alphabet, described as a "living culture of three writing systems”, has been added to UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The ancient Georgian alphabet has been granted the national status of cultural heritage.
The Georgian alphabet has been named among the top five most beautiful alphabets in the world by an international travel website.
The Georgian language was presented on Saturday at the special event in Bucharest on the occasion of the forthcoming European Day of Languages on September 26, with the Georgian Embassy in Romania joining German, French, Italian and English, as well as Spanish, Romanian, Greek and Turkish cultural institutions.