Every citizen should be ready to fight for Georgia, says President

“Every Georgian citizen should be ready for defence and each family and home should become a fortress of resistance from enemy attack,” Georgia’s President Saakashvili declared on December 26 at the opening of the new National Guard Headquarters, where he met National Guard personnel.

At new three-building complex the top brass of the National Guard will be deployed and prepare new reservists. Under reforms carried out by the Defence Ministry of Georgia, the minimum age of reservists has risen to 27. Reservists will be divided into two categories - voluntary and compulsory.

“Georgia has an Army that has passed lots of difficult examinations,” Saakashvili said. He added the Georgian troops have developed as efficient forces. The President said that nobody in Georgia should have any illusion that it is only up to soldiers to defend the country and its future, as each family should be ready to protect the country.

“Each Georgian man and woman should be ready to fight for Georgia. I mean not only psychological readiness, but they should be adequately prepared and equipped to fight for the country,” the President said. “When this moment comes, if this moment comes –we should all do our best to avoid seeing this moment, but every country should be ready for it, especially those in a situation similar to ours – each Georgian man and woman will be fighter for Georgia; they should be ready to fight for Georgia,” he added.

Mikheil Saakashvili said that Georgia always prepares for peace and wins a peace that irritates the enemy. He said that the Georgian people will never give up their homeland and freedom despite all the propaganda and manoeuvres being carried out in Georgia and all the people in the country who collaborate with the enemy. “Our enemy should know that although it is losing the peace, it will also lose the war and therefore it should not launch a war,” he said.