This war has not started on the 8th, or the 7th, or the 6th – this war started in the 1990s, and it has not ended on 12 August either; this war remains ongoing to this day. ­Take a look at the decision of the Strasbourg court, by which Georgia won over Russia and proved the occupation – everything has been answered there, Parliament Chairman Shalva Papuashvili told reporters in response to a question about why the 8th of August and not the 7th is marked as the date of the start of the war in Georgia.

According to Papuashvili, talking about the date not only amounts to speculation but is also improper conduct before the history of Georgia and the memory of the heroes and their family members.

“It is important for everyone to be honest, especially when it comes to the war and the lives that were lost. We mark the Day of Remembrance of the people who list their lives in the August War. We have been marking this day for the last 13 years, under every government – the National Movement among them while it was in power, and even after that, all three presidents paid their respects to those who died during the August War on 8 August. This is an event of national significance, a tradition, as this is the date that an entire generation grew up with – children paid their respects to the dead precisely on 8 August and so did the families of the deceased, regardless of when their sons had died. Examine the archive – from 2015-2016 the National ­Movement began to distance itself from the day of mourning and initiated the trend of establishing an alternative day of mourning,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.

As regards the resolution that was signed by the then authorities of Georgia two months after the August War, Papuashvili stated that “after many vicissitudes, even the National ­Movement had to admit that this resolution was damaging in its content.”

“To this day, they are trying to justify that they supported it because of the positive points that were there, which is an absolute lie. That resolution had enough supporters. The bad thing is that representatives of the National ­Movement who were part of the delegation on behalf of the state of Georgia signed the entries that they themselves admit were damaging. It is a fact that this act has neither political nor technical justification. These are the facts that directly indicate how brazenly the National ­Movement treated state interests,” Shalva Papuashvili stated.