At 14 am on October 2 the TSU Scientific Center “Religious Principles and Relations of the World Cultures (the center was established upon the instruction of the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, by decree of the permanent social-humanitarian commission of the Supreme Council of Georgia and is functioning at TSU under the order of the Rector’s Office, with blessing given by Georgian Patriarch Ilia II, and direct recommendation and mediation of President Mikheil Saakashvili) will organize an international conference “Contemporary Georgian Statehood as Viewed by Georgia and the World;” a photo exhibition depicting the lives of Georgia’s national hero, Merab Kostava and the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia; exhibition of cultural and educational printed materials – books, brochures, newspapers, magazines, etc. – will be held as well.
Other organizers of the event are: the commission of inter-ethnic relations of the Supreme Council of Georgia; NGO Sociological Society of Georgia; NGO Merab Kostava International Foundation for Culture, Education and Tourism Development; NGOs - Zviad Gamsakhurdia Society in the Netherlands; Georgian National Section of the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM-ISHR); NGO Center for Digitalization and Analysis.
The event is dedicated to the Independence Day of Georgia, Merab Kostava’s birthday and International Day of Museums.
The conference has been prepared on the basis of the TSU Scientific Center “Religious Principles and Relations of the World Cultures and represents a component of a large-scale, international cultural-educational project “Georgia as Viewed by the World and the World as Viewed by Georgia.”
The motto of the event is the famous words by Georgia’s first President Zviad Gamsakhurdia: “We will defeat our enemies so that they will win with us.” The event is based on the standpoint of Georgian Patriarch Ilia II expressed in the Easter Epistle concerning the reevaluation of some chapters of the Georgian history and subsequently the possibility of some of them to be written anew. Namely, this kind of approach echoes the strategic course of political, legal, economic, educational, cultural and technological development of TSU, Georgian and foreign states.
The conference aims at acquainting the Georgian and foreign society with the main directions, topics, different aspects of the researched object, results of the conference and against the background of all these to show the exhibition of the photo materials of the independence of Georgia, the life and activity of the founders of the Georgian State, Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia, highlight their huge role in the process of formation of the Georgian State. The reevaluation of the contemporary Georgian state, its integration and peaceful coexistence in todays progressive world will be carried out right from this angle. Besides, the main task of the conference is to acquaint the broad public with the photo exhibition depicting the lives and activities of Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia, cultural-educational printed materials as well as materials of cultural heritage; to direct a dialogue between the world cultures and religions; to popularize Georgian culture abroad and foreign culture in Georgia; to integrate Georgian culture into the space of the world cultures.
The organizing committee, the coordination council will be set up and it will be composed of Georgian and foreign participants. Georgian and foreign politicians, political parties, experts, law enforcers, scientists, cultural workers, clergy, businessmen, students, pupils will take part in the conference. President of Georgia, Prime Minister, Patriarch Ilia II, foreign diplomats accredited in Georgia are planned to be invited to the conference.
The event – presentation of the conference “Contemporary Georgian Statehood as Viewed by Georgia and the World”; photo exhibition of the materials depicting the Independence of Georgia, Merab Kostava’s and Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s lives and activities, exhibition of the cultural-educational printed materials – books, newspaper etc. will be held at the conference hall and the foyer of the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
