
9
9 in flowers in memory of those brave Georgians who died on 9 April 1989.
9
9 in flowers in memory of those brave Georgians who died on 9 April 1989.
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Express Yourself.”
I have many different ideas for “express yourself”: flowers laid in memory of 9 April 1989, an artist with his work, an irate taxi driver, my granddaughter Ana expressing her creativity with Lego, a swallow expressing itself in its call, some neighbours launching a fire heart into the air to express their love , a girl unable to express herself like her friends having no smartphone to hand and me expressing myself with these images (my take on the world).
There are many ways to express yourself:
Express your sorrow with flowers:
2. Express yourself through art (I’ve seen lots of other entries depicting arts and crafts like this one Joy)…
3. Express your anger, the red mist, through expressions, hand gestures and bad language:
A taxi driver expressing himself when someone takes his parking space…luckily you don’t hear his words just witness his expression.
4. Express yourself creatively:
5. Express yourself in song:
6. Express your love with a dramatic gesture:
Express yourself…you don’t need a smartphone to do it…
9th April Monument, Tbilisi…a memorial to the 20 people killed by Soviet Troops on 9 April 1989 in the Square in front of the Old Parliament Building in Tbilisi. See more information about the event in my previous blog post.
9th April 1989. The Berlin Wall was still standing, the Ceausescus were still breathing and events in Tbilisi which included hunger strikes reached a climax. The events of 9 April 1989 were the culmination of weeks of demonstrations for Georgian independence and against separatism of Abkhazia.
The demonstrations were mostly peaceful. At their peak, about 10,000 people are estimated to have been present.
Minutes before 4am on 9 April, General Radionov told his troops, who had been requested by Jumber Pastiashvili, first secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, to clear the square, in front of the Georgian government building, on Rustaveli Avenue, by all means available. The Soviet troops attacked the demonstrators with clubs and sharpened spades. The clashes left 20 people dead, mainly young women.
An hour before the attack the Georgian Patriarch, Ilia II, begged the crowds to leave the Square.
A year later, on 9 April 1990, Georgia adopted a Declaration of Independence. Today the day is marked with a National Holiday in Georgia.
My wife was among those in the square that day, she fled the square and sought refuge in Rustaveli Theatre.
Images from 1989: http://www.rferl.org/a/georgia-soviet-demonstrations/25324233.html