“You cannot change geography. Nor can you erase history. Those who face this truth do not serve war - they protect the country,” writes the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Shalva Papuashvili.

According to the Speaker, this was precisely the choice Georgia made in 2022.

“For reference, the distance from France’s easternmost border to Russia’s westernmost border is 2,000 kilometers, while from the occupation line to Georgia’s main transportation artery is 500 meters.

This heavy, tangible, geographical difference places us and France in completely different circumstances. It marks the difference between their theoretical rhetoric and the weight of our real responsibility; between geopolitical statements and geopolitical decisions.

Anyone who knows history and does not close their eyes to its lessons understood that pseudo-value fairy tales would end this way. This was clear even in 2022.

Such confrontations have occurred many times throughout human history; they have ended, countries have reconciled, and life has gone on. This was true in the nineteenth century, the twentieth century, and long before that. The shifting and rebalancing of power is the nature of great states. The destruction and casualties that occur at their points of contact are the fate of small states.

In 2022 there was only one question: on that inevitable day - which we now even hear from President Macron’s own lips - would Georgia face it destroyed and devastated, or would we learn from our own experience and, instead of following others’ false pathos, choose to follow our own path?

It is precisely here that the line was drawn between the unpatriotic and the patriots. The former adopted someone else’s flag and anthem as their own; first they believed it themselves, then they tried to convince others that a rain of bombs is better than the shame of peace; that this is our battle, our duty, that we must sacrifice ourselves for a great future; that war is peace and the sun rises from the West. Under that flag, they insulted fellow citizens, friends, those who thought differently; they spat into the plates they ate from and cursed walls.

We, on the other hand, protected the lives of our own people, because we knew that patriotism lies not in loud slogans, but in state responsibility.

You cannot change geography. Nor can you erase history. Those who face this truth do not serve war - they protect the country.

This is the choice Georgia made,” Papuashvili wrote.