Georgia, Tbilisi, Oct. 15 / Trend N.Kirtzkhalia /
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called on the country's people to take into account the lessons that the ancient capital of Georgia Mtskheta got.
Addressing to the representatives of the diplomatic corps, the Azerbaijani foreign minister, MPs and state official, who were attending the event devoted to the 1000th anniversary of the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, Saakashvili said the ancient capital of Georgia - Mtskheta is a symbol of all that Georgia has experienced in its history, as Mtskheta is the history of Georgia.
`It goes beyond our imagination to imagine how much tears and wound this place has seen. But when you look at Mtskheta today, when you see the Svetitskhiveli magnificent cathedral, the Jvari Monastery, the Mtskheta acropolis, the ruins of Pompeus` Bridge, you realize that the first and main lessons this town teaches us is firmness and persistence, capability to overcome all difficulties and stand up. You look at the magnificent architecture of Svetitskhoveli and realize that Mtskheta is a symbol of our nations` permanent aspiration to development. This is why our main task today is progress and modernizations," he said.
Saakashvili stressed that Georgia wants to be a competitive country, and not lag behind progress. "We have developed up to the Middle Ages and were ahead of many, and those monuments that stand around us are evidence to this. But we have lag behind and now we need to catch up, to become part of global peace, and for this we must be open and educated people," Saakashvili said.
"There is another lesson Mtskheta teaches us. It is unity. It was this town where the idea of Georgia `s unity first appeared", Saakashvili said. "We know the price of betrayal, unfortunately we faced this many times in our history, but we must go to unity, which was proclaimed many centuries ago, here in the ancient capital of Georgia, and then we realized that nobody can defeat a unified Georgia, today we need this unity to restore integrity," he stressed
He expressed satisfaction that today Mtskheta changed and become unrecognizable. "We are building a new one, and everybody understands that nobody can take that from us. The government will change, but the built one will be left for the people," Saakashvili said.
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