TBILISI, April 9 – Georgia on Thursday marked 37 years since the April 9 tragedy, one of the most painful and defining dates in the country’s modern history.
In the early hours of April 9, 1989, units of the Soviet Union’s armed forces broke up a peaceful protest in central Tbilisi near the parliament building.
A total of 21 people were killed in the dispersal. Thousands of citizens gathered outside parliament were also poisoned by a gas of unidentified composition.
The date is also significant because two years later, on April 9, 1991, Georgia’s Supreme Soviet (Council) declared the restoration of the country’s state independence.
