Adjara Supreme Council chair warns against politicisation of April 9 commemorations

The Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, Tsotne Ananidze, has said that 9 April should remain a symbol of unity and freedom, warning against what he described as attempts to use the date to deepen divisions within Georgian society.

In a social media post on Thursday, Ananidze said the anniversary of the 9 April tragedy and Georgia’s struggle for independence must not be exploited for political confrontation.

He accused what he termed “radical actors” of acting through Soviet ideological patterns and attempting to undermine the national unity for which Georgian heroes sacrificed their lives.

“It is unacceptable for a symbol of freedom to be turned into a weapon of discord,” he wrote.

Ananidze added that 9 April represented both national unity and the fight for liberty, and stressed that efforts to transform the date into a source of social conflict should be rejected.