On Independence Day Georgia opens memorial of perished heroes

On May 26, Georgia's Independence Day, the memorial to heroes who died for the freedom and unity of the Georgian state was opened in the Square of Heroes in Tbilisi.

The monument immortalizes the names of Georgian junkers-victims of 1921, leaders of the 1924 revolt, heroes who perished in the Abkhazian war of 1992-1993 and in the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008. In total, the memorial walls bear the names of about four thousand persons.

The memorial was opened by President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. "Patriots are people of different nationalities; the monument bears Ossetian, Abkhazian, Armenian and Azerbaijani surnames. I'll never divide them, they're three times Georgians who shed their blood for saving Georgia," the President has emphasized.

At night the monument in memory of perished heroes will be illuminated and could be seen from any flying object. The memorial looks like a column made of metal and organic glass 51 meter high. Its author is a Spanish designer Alberto Domingo Kabo. The authors of the monument assure that it can withstand any strong wind and even a 9-point earthquake.

See earlier report: "Georgia celebrates its Independence Day today".