On this day in 1921, Georgia lost its independence after the Bolshevik Red Army took over Tbilisi.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze honoured the memory of soldiers who lost their lives in the fight. Our history gives examples that freedom always defeats occupation," Bakhtadze stated.
Bakhtadze and Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze laid a wreath at the memorial of the heroes fallen between 17-24 February near Ialghuji, Kojori, and Tabakhmela near the Georgian capital, to defend the state independence.
Today, we honor the memory of the soldiers, our youth, who laid down their lives to stand up to Soviet occupation. I bow before all Georgian heroes who have sacrificed their lives for our country's freedom and independence,” Bakhtadze said.
He also visited a photo exhibition dedicated to these soldiers in the courtyard of the Tbilisi parliament.
The Day of Soviet Occupation was first officially marked in Georgia by the former government in 2010.
Parliament unanimously passed a resolution instructing the government to organise various memorial events each year on 25 February to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of victims of political repressions of the communist occupying regime.
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