“It is regrettable that the EU Delegation held its Europe Day event without a single word of congratulations to the Georgian people and our war veterans on May 9th and the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism, which our society commemorated yesterday,” wrote Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili, on social media.

As he noted, the celebration of Europe Day and Victory over Fascism should not be seen as mutually exclusive.

“It is unfortunate that the EU Delegation held the Europe Day celebration without so much as a word of congratulations to the Georgian people and our war veterans on May 9th, marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism, which our society commemorated yesterday.

With 300,000 Georgian heroes fallen on the battlefield, Georgia paid a great price in the defeat of Nazism. Without this fight, Europe would not be what it is today. Without this sacrifice, there would be no European Union and no Europe Day.

Commemorating Europe Day and Victory over Fascism should not exclude one another. On the contrary, it was the defeat of fascism that made today’s Europe possible. It is truly disheartening if the demonstrative disregard of this day serves to replace one with the other.

Shared memory is what makes our continent a civilization. True Europe lies in honoring the past,” Papuashvili wrote.