Georgian national flag will join European countries’ flags to form “new, strong unity” - President on Flag Day

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Sunday said Georgia’s national flag would join the flags of the European countries to “form a new and strong unity”, in her address on National Flag Day.

It [the national flag] is a symbol of our state, its sovereignty and independence, for which our ancestors fought for a very long time, died so that this flag would be respectable for us and represent the hope of tomorrow”, Zourabichvili noted.

She emphasised the importance of “respecting” the flag, as it represented Georgia’s values, identity and beliefs, and the country’s “struggle in the past and its victories today and tomorrow”.

The President, highlighting the need for unity of the people, stressed the national flag “protects” the values that unite the Georgian people.

I would like to tell the young people [of Georgia] that this flag belongs to you, it is yours to protect, you should take this flag to where the future of this country is”, Zourabichvili said in her address.

Georgia marks National Flag Day today, as the current flag was adopted by Parliament on January 14, 2004. The flag was used by the Georgian patriotic movement following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.