1921 Vs 2008

Today is Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia. It remembers the Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921 (3,200 Georgian soldiers and 5,000 Georgian civilians were killed during the invasion which lasted 1 month.) It also remembers the 70 years that Georgia was forced to join the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991) in which millions of innocent men, women and children were imprisoned, deported or murdered by the Communists. 97 years later Russia continues to occupy parts of Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and encouraged the ethnic cleansing (massacres and deportations) of the Georgians from those territories: around 250,000 ethnic Georgians became internally-displaced in other parts of Georgia. Only Nauru, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela recognize the current 2008 occupation (although they consider those territories to be independent countries even though the citizens there have Russian passports, speak Russian, use Russian rubles and receive Russian government pensions.) Today, Georgia helps the UN, the US and NATO by sending soldiers and peacekeepers to: Iraq, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan and Kosovo even with parts of its own territory occupied.