The Parliament of Georgia states that the Georgian nation, who has
a history of statehood spanning over 3,000 years, the nation, who
has created unique culture and civilization, the nation, who has
its own writing system out of 14 scripts in existence in the world,
the nation,
who adopted Christianity in the 4th century and has preserved its
religion since then, the nation, who grows over 500 varieties of
vine out of 4,000 in existence and thirteen varieties of wheat out
of twenty-three, this nation has always been a victim of genocidal
wars throughout history and it continues today.
The Parliament of Georgia is making a statement to the entire world
that the Georgian people, as a nation and as a state, has been a
victim of brutal battles and horrific wars throughout millennia.
These wars aimed to invade the land and the entire country, but
also to annihilate the Georgian nation, its culture, its religion,
its national identity. There is a clear evidence in place: there
were historically well-known invasions that lasted for centuries,
including those by Arabs, Persians, Khazars, Seljuks, Ottomans,
Mongols, Turks and as a result millions of Georgians were killed
based on their ethnicity, millions of Georgians were forced out of
their lands and resettled to foreign countries and tens of millions
were sold as slaves, mostly on Asian markets.
There is evidence of historic genocide of Georgians of horrifying
scale. On 9 March, 1226, Jalal Ad Din Khwârazmshâh, killed 100,000
peaceful Christian Georgians in just one day. This was atrocity
committed on ethnic and religious basis, as the ruler punished
those Georgians who refused to trample on a cross laid on the
bridge. Tamerlane, an emir of Central Asia invaded Georgia eight
times in 1386-1403 years, murdered and persecuted thousands of
ethnic Georgians and burned graveyards and vine – which is a
cultural symbol of Georgia. In 1614-1617, an Iranian Shah committed
another act of ethnic cleansing when he forced four hundred
thousand Georgians to exile from Georgia to Persia and resettled
Turkmenistan-Islamic tribes in their place. In 1616, Shah-Abbas
assassinated 6,000 monks and religious figures in Davit Gareji
Christian monastery on Easter holiday, another horrifying act that
goes beyond the scales of genocide.
Furthermore, all forms of governments of the Russian empire has
been committing genocide against the Georgian nation since our
invasion in 1802. Russia abolished the statehood of Georgia,
suppressed the autocephaly of the Georgian church and invaded and
annexed independent Georgia in 1921, occupied the territories of
Georgia and handed them over to a neighboring state, which then
caused forced assimilation of millions of Georgians, millions of
Georgians were deprived of their language, faith and culture. It is
noteworthy that the war between the fascism and the bolshevism in
1941-1945 killed 400,000 of ethnic Georgians out of 3 million who
lived in those times. Russia’s main strategy remains to commit
genocide of the Georgian people and President Vladimir Putin is the
main person executing the strategy. An obvious demonstration to
that are the brutal wars that Russia started in Abkhkazia and
Tskhinvali regions in the 90s. The Russian aggression in August
2008, the occupation of the land that followed the war and forceful
expulsion of over a half of a million of people from ancient
Georgian territories and their oppression on the basis of
ethnicity, killing of tens of thousands of people again based on
their ethnicity, recognition of these territories as independent
republics, horrible discrimination of the ethnic Georgian
population still living in those regions, forced assimilation,
prohibition of teaching and working in the Georgian language,
destruction of the monuments of the Georgian culture, demolition of
Georgian towns and villages in order to remove the
Georgian trace in them, the murder of civilians, their torture and
arrests – these are daily atrocities that Russia commits against
the people of Georgia. Thus, according to the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted in 1948,
there is an historic and still ongoing genocide against the people
of Georgia, which aimed and still aims to annihilate the members of
the national team and create conditions to destroy in part or
entirely the nation of Georgia. The acts of discrimination, ethnic
cleansing, religious and cultural persecution still persist and
today they are committed by the Russian Federation. We all see
aggression, occupation, sanctions, persecution of the people of
Georgia based on their ethnicity not only in Georgia, but also on
the territory of Russia. This has been repeatedly confirmed by
rulings of the European Court for Human Rights.
On 2 October 1992, ethnic hatred escalated so far that Russian
militaries and their mercenaries organized mass murder of civilians
at a stadium in Gagra, a city in Abkhazia populated by ethnic
Georgians, cut off their heads and played football with their
heads.
The Russian Empire and then its successor the Soviet Empire would
deport ethnic Georgians from Georgian territory and resettle
foreign ethnic tribes from the North Caucasus to Abkhazia and
Tskhinvali regions. This was a deliberate action to change an
ethnic composition of the population in Georgia. The Soviet empire
would create nations from these tribes artificially and write fake
histories. Moscow has used the product of this strategy today and
has grabbed twenty per cent of the Georgian land.
The Parliament of Georgia states:
1. The historic and the ongoing genocide against the Georgian
people be declared as confirmed; 2. Based on the existing factual
evidence and materials, all state agencies begin criminal and
international legal proceedings against the people accused of,
suspected in committing or aiding and abetting genocide against the
Georgian nation; 3. Call on the international community,
international organizations, foreign governments and parliaments to
recognize the historic and ongoing genocide of the Georgian nation.
This recognition will not only rescue the Georgian nation and the
Georgian civilization, but it will also ensure peace in the region
and in the world, take the security of all small, vulnerable
nations to a new level and protect them from imperialistic and
genocidal politics