No new developments regarding the subject of renaming the city’s main avenue, says Gori Municipality Mayor Vladimer Khinchegashvili on Tuesday. Local activists have been pleading for the renaming of Stalin Avenue for several years.
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“Me personally, I don’t have a problem, nor do I see grounds for one, that the main avenue is named after Stalin,” told journalists Khinchegashvili, who commemorated the fallen soldiers of WW2 on today’s 78th anniversary of defeating Nazi Germany, as he decorated their memorial with flowers.
At the same time, “Stalinites” held a rally near the museum of the Soviet dictator demanding the re-erection of Stalin’s statue in the city center. They mean a six-meter bronze statue that stood in Gori from 1952 to 2010.
“This genius defeated the evil on this day, the day we celebrate. As for erecting a statue, we are not requesting, but giving a final warning to the government, or else, when the 2024 elections arrive, to which we, the “Stalinites” will contribute a lion’s share, they don’t get our votes. The fact that they held the office for 10 years is in large part thanks to votes from our community from all over the country,” stated one of the participants.
The initiative group of citizens addressed the local self-government with a petition requesting the renaming of Stalin Avenue.
The “Freedom Charter” - law of Georgia adopted in 2011 involves a clause for the elimination of all communist totalitarian symbolism: statues, monuments, inscriptions, and names of streets, squares, and villages. On the basis of said law, a special committee has been created within the State Security Service of Georgia, among the primary functions of which is gathering information on street names that include communist totalitarian or fascist ideologies, propaganda elements, or names of the leaders of these ideologies. The committee is obliged to report such findings to authorized persons with the goal of elimination. Fulfilling the directives of the committee is mandatory.
