South Ossetia commemorated those killed eleven years ago
On the stairs of the Parliament building of South Ossetia eleven years ago, immediately after the repulse of the Georgian troops, the great maestro Valery Gergiev held a requiem concert. Candles were burning on the steps in memory of the victims, and the schoolchildren were holding the photographs of the victims of Georgian aggressors. Since then, these stairs are called the Gergiev stairs ...
Every year, on the night of August 7-8, residents of the Republic come to this place to commemorate, cry for the victims It is impossible to stand at the Gergiev stairs without tears.
About three hundred people looked at the numerous participants in the mourning event through the rays of burning candles, and in the dark silence was heard the prayer of the children “Our Father”. They asked God for help for the alive, prayed for the repose of the souls of the perished ...
Each name is in our memory
Towards midnight, began the action “Let's Remember Everything!”. The head of state addressed the citizens of South Ossetia, noting that we have been gathering for eleven years on this day to pay tribute to those killed on August 8, 2008. “These people who are looking at us from photographs were only blamed for the fact that they were born in South Ossetia, were Ossetians, and they paid for it with their lives. They were destroying us, the unarmed, women and children. I don’t understand why the world community does not evaluate this atrocity, does not condemn the Georgian side for crimes against humanity,” Anatoly Bibilov asked a question.
He has emphasized that the South Ossetian people cannot forget these atrocities and forgive the culprits. “And no matter how much time passes, these beasts in human guise will be surely punished. I am sure that the time will come, and the most important criminal - Mikheil Saakashvili will appear before the international tribunal and receive a well-deserved punishment that has been haunting him for 11 years. We can only remember the victims and do everything so that their death would not be in vain, to develop South Ossetian society, and unite it. It is our responsibility to the memory of all the dead. We will always remember everyone who gave his life for our freedom, all innocently killed. Their names will remain forever in our memory, and we will talk about their valor to future generations,” the head of state said.
The President addressed the words of gratitude to the Russian Federation for the salvation of the South Ossetian people, noting that today it is doing everything for the development of South Ossetia. “Thanks to the great Russia, the world community learned about the tragic events in South Ossetia, and it is making efforts to recognize the independence of our Republic by other states.
On behalf of the entire people of our Republic, he expressed gratitude to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and to all who made the decision to provide military assistance and to those who today help to develop and build South Ossetia,” Bibilov emphasized.
Mute Questions
The head of the Russian Language Department of the South Ossetian State University Zalina Tedeeva spoke about the work of the South Ossetian State University in 2008.
“September 1, 2008, we gathered in the courtyard of the university to start working. We saw the charred building of the university, which called for us not to give up, we began work in three shifts and continued to live. It was hard to look into the frightened - sad eyes of students, in which mute questions seemed to freeze: “Why did they kill my father? Why did they kill my classmate, a first-year student at the Faculty of Law? Why did the militias, the defenders of Ossetia, perished? And the teachers faced the task of helping the students return to peaceful life, aiming them at the educational process, understanding their mission in life, mastering the profession and becoming useful to Ossetia,” noted Zalina Tedeeva.
According to her, the most important thing then was to instill in them the memory of history, so that all students and teachers would remember who drove the Nazis from Ossetian land, remembered those who defended their homeland and honor to the end, those who had made peace for us at the cost of health and life. She read the confession of the mother, who lost her son ...
To accuse and condemn
Nikolai Doguzov, whose brother with the eleven other guys, were brutally killed by Georgians called for blaming fascism for murders and mutilated fates.
Peacekeeper Nodar Alborov condemned the atrocities against South Ossetia committed by Georgia. According to him, all these atrocities can be classified as the genocide of the Ossetian people. “Peacekeepers were the guarantor of peace in the land of South Ossetia. I condemn the peacekeepers of the Georgian battalion, who two days before the start of the war in August 2008, left their observation posts and fled. As a citizen of the Republic of South Ossetia, I condemn the Menshevik government of Georgia of the 1920s for the genocide of the Ossetian people, condemn the fascist regimes of Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze and Saakashvili, condemn for the Zar and Ered tragedies, for the burnt Tskhinval
I support the appeal of the RSO Parliament to the Federation Council and the State Duma on the consideration and recognition of the genocide of the Ossetian people. The aggressor must be punished and condemned by the international community,” said Alborov.
Grace of the virgin
Poetry dedicated to the heroism of Ossetian guys was read at the event, South Ossetian and North Ossetian performers sang patriotic songs. Each of them was holding in his hands an icon with the image of the Virgin. And this is probably not by chance. Indeed, Ossetians especially venerate the Holy Virgin, and during the war of 2008, when Georgian shells fell as rain on the people of South Ossetia from heaven, many people, even our enemies who were going to kill us, saw the Holy Virgin, who covered our city with a veil and saved many lives of our citizens, people praying to her. Here, father Simon held a prayer service to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Immediately after the military events, thanks to the asceticism of a parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who lives in St. Petersburg, the icon “Heavenly Consolation of Tskhinval” was painted on the plot of the appearance of the Virgin over the city during the military aggression. The icon depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Divine Infant in her arms and holding a fortress in her hand - a symbol of the city of Tskhinval.
The event was also attended by Prime Minister Eric Pukhaev, Speaker of Parliament Alan Tadtaev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to South Ossetia Marat Kulakhmetov, former presidents of South Ossetia Ludwig Chibirov and Leonid Tibilov, members of the government and parliament, residents and guests of the Republic.
