“Today, we recall once more our nation’s centuries-long struggle for statehood and independence, the courage and wisdom of our freedom-loving people and great figures of history, and those eternal values which, across the centuries, have preserved our national dignity and national distinctiveness,” declared Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze in his address at the ceremonial event dedicated to Georgia’s Independence Day.

According to Kobakhidze, this year Georgia marks the 1,700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion.

“I greet the conscripts who today solemnly swore their oath before the Motherland! I greet our dear fellow citizens, our compatriots living abroad, ladies and gentlemen. I extend my greetings to Georgians, Abkhazians, and Ossetians living in the occupied territories. I congratulate you on Georgia’s Independence Day!

Today, we mark a particularly significant date. We recall once more our nation’s centuries-long struggle for statehood and independence, the courage and wisdom of our freedom-loving people and great figures of history, and those eternal values which, across the centuries, have preserved our national dignity and national distinctiveness.

This year, our country marks the 1,700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as the state religion. In 326 AD, Christianity became an inseparable part of our national identity and one of its foremost pillars. Christianity shaped the unique Georgian culture of which each one of us is so justly proud. For 1,700 years, faith has strengthened us and love has united us. Christianity bestowed upon our people a singular culture of love and a gift that evil and hatred can never defeat.

Empires around us rose and fell over these seventeen centuries, yet Georgia has preserved its national distinctiveness and independence to this day. Were it not for the Lord’s protection and the Georgian people’s faith that we are children of the land chosen by the Mother of God, this miracle of history could never have come to pass.

Giorgi Merchule wrote: “All that land is reckoned as Kartli in which the Liturgy is celebrated in the Georgian tongue, and all prayer is performed therein.” This formula of Georgia’s national identity was expressed by Ilia Chavchavadze, Saint Ilia the Righteous, in three words: “Homeland, Language, Faith.” These are the three paramount national values which our forebears defended with self-sacrifice, and which it is the duty of each and every one of us to uphold steadfastly,” the Prime Minister declared.