“Georgia’s 35-year journey since the restoration of independence has proved thorny, mined with peril, narrow in passage, and filled with days of profound tragedy. The rupture of statehood, the collapse of an empire, economic ruin, human arrogance, and internal intolerance have all left their mark upon this road,” writes the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, in a post on social media.

As Papuashvili notes, despite all challenges, Georgia has endured and survived.

“Today is the 31st of March, the day of Georgia’s independence referendum. The day on which a nationwide popular vote, held across every corner of Georgian territory, answered a historic question with one voice: did we wish to restore Georgia’s independence?

Every region of Georgia, every son and daughter of this land, answered as one — yes.

The 31st of March is also the birthday of Georgia’s first President, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the man who, just days after that referendum, on April 9, 1991, stood in the Georgian Parliament, today bearing his name, and proclaimed the restoration of Georgia’s independence, binding his name forever to the rebirth of the Georgian state.

Our 35-year journey has proved thorny, mined with danger, narrow and strewn with tragedy. The severing of statehood, the fall of empire, economic collapse, human hubris, and bitter internal division have all taken their toll. And yet, despite everything, we survived. Georgia survived.

Not only did we survive, but we also preserved our identity, defended our independence, our sovereignty, and our freedom. We defended them not by siding with empires, but by standing on the side of our own country. Not by seeking a new master, but by bearing the heavy burden of independence, looking ourselves squarely in the mirror, and confronting the question of who we are, who we were, and who we shall be,” Papuashvili writes.

The Parliament Speaker made clear, however, that the journey is far from finished and that immense work lies ahead.

“Territorial integrity must be restored, sovereignty must be strengthened, new relationships must be forged in a wholly transformed geopolitical world, demographics demand our care, the economy must grow, and all of this requires tireless labour, resilience, and statesmanlike wisdom. But above all else, today and always, we need unity. We need solidarity. We need a clear-eyed understanding of what constitutes the vital national interests of our people, interests which all of us, together and without wavering, must defend.

On the primacy of Georgia’s national interests, we need today the very same unity we had 35 years ago on this day, because the question posed then remains, in truth, very much alive. It stands before our nation always. The choice is ever-present. And there will always be forces who seek to revisit that choice.

Do we wish for Georgia’s independence, sovereignty, freedom, and unity to endure? That was the spirit of the national movement, which we, our parents, and every generation, supported without reservation. We shall uphold that spirit, and we shall not allow any deceiver or ill-wisher the opportunity to revise our historic choice for our answer to the question asked in that independence referendum remains, as ever: yes!” Shalva Papuashvili wrote.