Georgian PM commemorates national hero Zhiuli Shartava on anniversary
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday commemorated Zhiuli Shartava, the late first national hero of the independent Georgia, who would have turned 80 today. Photo: PM's press office
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Thursday commemorated Zhiuli Shartava, the late first national hero of the independent Georgia, who would have turned 80 today.
The head of the Government offered messages on the anniversary of the birth of Shartava, the Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in the country’s north-west, who was tortured and killed after being captured by separatist forces during the 1992-1993 war in the now-Russian-occupied region.
Zhiuli Shartava is an example of heroism and self-sacrifice for each of us and for future generations. He sacrificed his life and became a symbol of Georgian man’s dignity”, Kobakhidze said in his statement.
Shartava was killed on September 27, 1993, on the day of the fall of Abkhazia’s regional capital Sokhumi to separatist forces, who captured the official along with a small group of other Georgian and Abkhaz government officials and staff in the city.
Remaining in government offices in Sokhumi until the moment of the city’s capture, he was “excessively tortured” following his capture, a United Nations report later revealed.
Shartava was the first person to be awarded the title of the National Hero of Georgia in 2004. He was also posthumously awarded the Vakhtang Gorgasali First Degree State Medal.
Zhiuli Shartava, the first national hero of the independent Georgia, is being remembered today, 29 years after his death during the war in the country’s now-occupied region of Abkhazia.
Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday visited the Tbilisi memorial of those who died in conflicts for the territorial integrity of Georgia, as part of events marking the 29th anniversary of the fall of Sokhumi, the capital of Georgia’s north-western region of Abkhazia, in the 1992-1993 war in the region currently occupied by Russia.
The United States embassy to Georgia on Tuesday paid tribute to the memory of those who died during the 1992-1993 war in Georgia’s north-western region of Abkhazia, a territory currently occupied by Russia.
Georgia’s Defence Ministry and servicemembers of the Defence Forces on Saturday paid tribute to those who died in the 1993 Battle of Tamishi during the war in Georgia’s northeastern region of Abkhazia.