Abstract
On his inaugural day of 25 January 2004, the newly sworn-in president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, raised the Council of Europe flag1 next to the Georgian banner and gave his now famous speech, in a typically flamboyant manner. In it, he emphasised the country’s European past and signalled its future Western aspirations:
Our direction is towards European integration…. Today, we have not raised the European flag by accident — this flag is the Georgian flag as well, as far as it embodies our civilization, our culture, the essence of our history and perspective, and the vision of our future. (Saakashvili 2004)
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© 2015 Ketevan Bolkvadze and Rachel Naylor
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Bolkvadze, K., Naylor, R. (2015). Popular and Elite Perceptions of the EU in Georgia. In: Bachmann, V., Müller, M. (eds) Perceptions of the EU in Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Europe in a Global Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405470_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137405470_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-68070-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40547-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)