Salome Zurabishvili: This is the reason for the first pointless controversy - "I want it so, put a chair there for me, or move aside", this is not an insult to the President, it is a violation of protocol

This is the reason for the first pointless controversy. Nothing has offended me in this country for a long time and no one can offend me with this, it is not an insult to the President, it is a violation of protocol... an endless "I am the first, you are the second" begins, said the President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, at the Diaspora Forum at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As Salome Zurabishvili pointed out, the President was given a chair at the Diaspora Forum in violation of protocol.

"I want to start with a small perspective. As we are in this extraordinary, renovated building, where today the Foreign Ministry will be located and this is organized by the Foreign Ministry, I cannot but say the importance of the protocol. "I want it so, put a chair there for me, or move aside", this is not an insult to the President, it is a violation of protocol, and protocol is nothing but a pillar of the state. The endless "I am the first, you are the second" begins. This is the first reason for pointless controversy. I have not been offended by anything in this country for a long time and no one can be offended with this, but I will leave this place, another will come and this place is the President's. The Minister of Defense shouldn't greet the Prime Minister first and then the President, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, on May 26, in any country! It causes surprise everywhere. I will say one more thing that the protocol is not only protecting the state inside and arranging our relations so that nothing happens. No matter what the difference of opinion is, everyone should have their place and it should be settled quietly. By the way, for three years I have been trying to create a single protocol agency, that is, to coordinate various ministries, together with everyone, even with the Patriarchate, once and for all to sort out the protocol book of Georgia, which is also the pillar of the state because everyone has their own private, small ambitions. The protocol is also the main safeguard for small states at the international level. If not for the protocol, then we would be somewhere below, behind, in international level meetings everywhere. The protocol protects the little one, it protects everyone, and it is not so invented to suit someone's self-respect or ambitions... This is like a small introduction to this issue," Zurabishvili said.

After the speech, President Salome Zurabishvili left the ongoing Diaspora Forum at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.