“Today, five military personnel and one civilian who went missing in Abkhazia were identified and laid to rest. This moment reminds us how narrow the line is between peace and war,” stated the Georgian Parliament Speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, who attended the civilian memorial service for those missing in action during the armed conflicts of the 1990s whose remains were recently returned from the occupied Abkhazia region.

According to Papuashvili, Georgia was very close to this line during the last three years, but with the support of citizens, wisdom, and the firmness of the Georgian government, Georgia maintained peace.

“Today, five military personnel and one civilian who went missing in Abkhazia were identified and laid to rest, allowing their families to mourn.

On the one hand, this is a moment of sorrow when families once again have their wounds that are associated with the loss of family members reopened. On the other hand, it is a moment of joy when they are allowed to mourn their loved ones who were lost several decades ago.

Today we still have up to 2,000 missing military and civilian personnel from conflicts in both the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions, and every family must be allowed to mourn their family members. At the same time, these are moments when we think about our wounds that were opened three decades ago and which remind us of themselves daily.

It also reminds us how narrow the line is between peace and war. We have been particularly observing this in the region for the last three years. We see the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, we see new mourning families, and our society understands that we were very close to this line during the last three years. Many wanted to push us to cross this line and for our country to become a mourning nation again, but society stood firmly, we did not follow anyone’s false, deceptive calls.

We saw only one marginal group of our citizens who, three years ago, during these days, demanded that by sending volunteers, supplying weapons, closing borders, etc., Georgia would have rushed headlong into another war and would have become a second Ukraine.

We see that this marginal group is still imposing its agenda on society again and again at the behest of its foreign patrons, whom we saw then acting in harmony and synchronization. Three years ago, separate rallies were held near the parliament demanding the sending of volunteers, closing of borders, sending weapons, imposing sanctions, etc. At the same time, we would see the President of Ukraine joining in and encouraging exactly this, for us to rush headlong into the conflict, or the Prime Minister of Ukraine calling on citizens to go to the government and demand them to send volunteers, sometimes in open conversations, sometimes in closed cabinet discussions.

Georgia escaped this three years ago, and this was an ongoing process throughout these three years. Today we see there are hopes that peace will come to Ukraine, however, the last three years have been a daily struggle between war and peace, and many wanted us to cross this line, but with the support of our citizens, the wisdom of our society, and the firmness of the Georgian government, Georgia has maintained peace,” stated Shalva Papuashvili.