Salome Zurabishvili was sworn in as Georgia’s fifth president. The inauguration ceremony took place in Telavi city of eastern Kakheti region today.
After the oath-taking, Salome Zurabishvili has delivered an inauguration speech. She focused on many important issues. New President made a special emphasis on the issues related to human rights protection, strengthening of the country, integration into the EU and NATO, culture, security and the unification of the country.
The President reiterated her respect for all citizens who had voted or not vote in her favor in elections, and noted that she is the president of everyone.
“I respect those who did not vote for me. I also know that other parties have different position about recognizing me as president. But today, I am undertaking a responsibility to be president of all citizens of Georgia. This is the main principle of democracy. The Georgian state is based on this responsibility and consciousness.
Today, when I became the fifth president of Georgia, I am proud that we were able to transfer the presidential power in a peaceful and civilized manner. This is another democratic step forward”, – Salome Zurabishvili said.
As president noted, she will protect the rights and freedoms of the citizen and will be guarantee of the rule of law. “I will take care to strengthen civil society and promote political culture. Each citizen, free media and non-governmental sector can play a significant positive role in achieving public consent” – she added.
According to a new president, her main goal is the unification of the country, the consolidation of the society, and establishing place in Europe.
“It is noteworthy that today, when we celebrate the the 100thanniversary of restoration of the Independence of Georgia, I, born in emigration, became the president of Georgia. Some kind of circle bound, the descendant of an emigrant family, which left the country due to the invasion of the Russian 11th Army and the Soviet occupation, today, with the power granted by the Constitution I am returning as a defender of democracy and supreme commander” – Salome Zurabishvili said.
In her inaugural speech Salome Zurabishvili underlined the roles of the previous presidents in the process of building independent and democratic Georgia. “It should be noted that every president has put his bricks in the process of building independent and democratic Georgia. A century ago, the leaders of the first republic adopted a constitution, which was modern and progressive at that time. Zviad Gamsakhurdia played a major role when he appointed a referendum and adopted an important act of Georgia’s independence. Eduard Shevardnadze was first to open a path towards European and Euro-Atlantic space. Mikheil Saakashvili laid the foundation of many important reforms at the initial stage of his administration. During the presidency of Giorgi Margvelashvili, steps have been taken to strengthen the democratic process and stability. My goal is to do my best to develop our state, to make its European future irreversible and to prevent any obstacle in this process”, – said Salome Zurabishvili.
Salome Zurabishvili emphasized the importance of strengthening the security of the county, and noted that for achieving the goals she will be actively involved in negotiations with American and European partners. “We should work closely with our partners and EU Monitoring Mission in this direction. To achieve a higher level of security we need more cooperation with NATO. Strengthening the Black Sea Security is also one of our main objectives. We need stronger support in this regard too. I will be actively involved in negotiations with American and European partners in order to achieve our goal as quickly as possible” – she said.
“Georgia faces a big challenge – Abkhazia and South Ossetia are occupied by Russia”, – President Salome Zurabishvili said. “The occupation line gradually moves closer to us and our citizens are being kidnapped. This is unacceptable for a sovereign state. We will not tolerate this!” she added.
