Police officers awarded for bravery on professional day

Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri on Wednesday awarded more than 20 police officers for their bravery in the line of duty at a special ceremony in Tbilisi dedicated to Police Day.

Photo via Interior Ministry

The officer of the Patrol Police Department, Major Khvicha Kravelidze was awarded with the Interior Ministry’s medal for Courage, who was able to rescue an 8-month-old infant unharmed, after the child had been locked alone in the apartment with the stove turned on. Kravelidze had climbed from the balcony and entered the apartment on the fifth floor of the building.

The Special Merit Award was handed to Lieutenant Ioseb Rostiashvili, who had picked up the Georgian flag from the ground and kissed it during the March protests in Tbilisi in front of the Parliament building.

Photo via Interior Ministry

The Medals of Courage were also received by Junior Lieutenant Giorgi Estateshvili, who in March had rescued an old man from a burning apartment of a high-rise building in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, and Giorgi Gogichaishvili, the firefighter and rescuer of the Emergency Management Service, who had pulled a teenager from the river to the shore, despite the swift current and saved the latter from drowning in western Georgia.

Photo via Interior Ministry

Employees of the Border Police and Coast Guard Departments, Senior Border Police Lieutenant Badri Kokoladze and Junior Inspector Bidzina Takidze also received the medals for Courage from the Ministry for saving two persons from drowning in Georgia's Black Sea region of Adjara.

Photo via Interior Ministry

The ceremony was attended by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, members of the Government and representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia, as well as employees of various structural units of the Interior Ministry.

Photo via Interior Ministry

The Interior Minister extended his gratitude to police officers for service, highlighting the law enforcement’s “tireless” fight against crime, while the Prime Minister pledged “greater support” for the country’s law enforcement in his Police Day speech and stressed appreciating the work of police professionals was the Government's “obligation and duty”. The Parliament Speaker also thanked police officers for the “untiring and devoted” fulfilment of their duties.