Comment du Jour

Georgia on My Mind...

United Nations—Two years after an invasion, the threat of annihilation and partial occupation by neighboring Russia, the small but spunky Georgian Republic has not only survived but thrived and succeeded against all odds. That was the upbeat assessment of Georgia’s once-embattled President Mikheil Saakashvili in an impressive and stirring address before the UN General Assembly.

“Today, Georgia is back,” Saakashvili extolled in the sonorous Assembly hall; “Georgia is back, first as a laboratory for political reform and social transformation. More than ever we are committed to the promise at the heart of the Rose Revolution, to turn a failed state into a modern European one.”

The 2008 Summer War between Russia and Georgia thrust the small land into world headlines. International support both by the Bush Administration to safeguard Georgia’s fragile sovereignty and from French President Nicolas Sarkozy who brokered a ceasefire before the situation totally spun out of the control, were equally crucial in the nervous days of August.


“A New Iron Curtain” illegally divides our country,” he conceded, before imploring to assembled delegates, “It is noticeable that despite enormous pressure and multiple threats from Moscow, not a single former soviet republic has recognized this dismemberment of Georgia. it shows that the former captive nations of the Soviet times became strong independent states that can determine their own policies.”


Strategically situated on the crossroads of Europe and Asia and historically shadowed by competing power interests, (Russia, Turkey, Iran) and courted by the USA, Georgia wishes to firmly anchor its social and political future to the West. In its bid to become an active player in Europe and join NATO in the future, Georgia has dispatched almost 1,000 soldiers to Afghanistan to serve in the multinational mission. This ancient Christian nation, with the St. George Cross on its national flag, aspires to join the European Union and NATO.

Georgia’s president called on the international community to stay committed and secure peace not only in Georgia but the entire unstable Caucasian region. But most importantly, President Mikheil Saakashvili implored, “I personally want Russia as a partner and not as an enemy.” This aspiration may remain his biggest challenge.