The three-day visit of MR. FABIAN HAMILTON, Member of the UK Parliament, Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament was organized by the Enterprise and Parliamentary Dialogue International (EPDI) together with the Georgian dialogue scheme – Business and Economic Centre (BEC) and Crystal Fund.
The Official Reception, the Exhibition of the works by the children – ”We Paint Abkhazia” and the Exhibition – “This is our common pain” exposing the works by the famous photographers – Shakh Aivazov, Yuri Mechitov and Giorgi Tsagareli were held in the Parliament of Georgia dedicated to the visit of Mr. Fabian Hamilton.
The events were hosted by the Diaspora and Foreign Relations Committees of the Parliament of Georgia together with the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia. The welcome speeches were given by: Mr. Fredrick R Hyde-Chambers OBE, the Executive Chairman of EPDI; Mr. Fabian Hamilton, British MP; Ms. Natia Katsiashvili, Executive Director of BEC and Programme Manager of Crystal Fund; Mr. Zviad Kvachantiradze, Chairman of the Diaspora and Caucasus Issues Committee; Ms. Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia.
The official meetings were held with: – MR. GEORGE VOLSKI, Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, member of the Temporary Commission on Territorial Integrity of the Parliament; – Georgian MPs: MS. SOPHIO KATSARAVA, the Chairwoman of the Foreign Relations Committee; MR. ZVIAD KVACHANTIRADZE, the Chairman of the Diaspora and Caucasus Issues Committee and MR. IRAKLI MEZURNISHVILI, Deputy Chairman of the Diaspora and Caucasus Issues Committee; – MS. KETEVAN TSIKHELASHVILI, State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia; – MR. JUSTIN MCKENZIE SMITH, British Ambassador to Georgia; – MR. VAKHTANG KOLBAIA, The Chairman of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia; – Experts and representatives of local and international NGOs working on conflict resolution and peace-building: among them: MS. OLESYA VARTANYAN, MR. LEVAN GERADZE, MR. GIA ABASHIDZE, MR. MIKHEIL MIRZIASHVILI, MS. KETEVAN CHACHAVA, MR. JUBA MARUASHVILI, MR. DAVID LEE, MR. NUKRI MILORAVA and MR. ALU GAMAKHARIA; – IDPs as well as beneficiaries and partners of Crystal Fund from Abkhazia.
Mr. Fabian Hamilton and Mr. Frederick R. Hyde-Chambers OBE visited the village of Khurvaleti’s shelter for the elderly “House without Borders”. The head of the shelter, Leda Salia, showed the guests the barbed wire fences made by the Russian occupation regime.
In addition, there was a special Tbilisi City Tour organized by MR. GIORGI DARTSIMELIA, the John Smith Trust fellow, founder of the TeamBuilding.ge and Queen Tamada. The British guests had an opportunity to visit the historical part of the city, Kashveti Church, and explore Tbilisi’s unique architectural heritage as well as history of Georgian-Jewish Relations.
