It started in 1989. April 9th, 1989 Soviet military forces killed about 20 students, who were on the meeting along with thousands of other people near the "House of Government", Rustaveli Ave. The soldiers with cold blood and cold mind took 20 young lives, just because the students wanted to establish the precedent of free speech in Georgia. The young people wanted peace and independence for their motherland, the rights of free speech, press, religion, right to live. Well, the Moscow forces did not want that to happened in one of the republics of Soviet Union. So there was blood on the streets of Tbilisi on April 9th, 1989. Along with 20 murdered kids, there was and still is a group of people, which was attacked by the strong gas, which is very dangerous to the human brain. Everybody was shocked, even in Moscow! But same things happened in other former republics... and not very long after tragedy in Tbilisi. I was just 7 years old little boy, who almost new nothing about politics and what was going on. I just felt that somebody harm me, my people, my dearest country. Somebody was trying to punish us for our will to have democracy and independence. I felt big pain for those who died for these ideas, for their people and their beautiful country.
After that, I was watching TV and reading newspapers very often. Plus in my family it was very common to discuss the situation in Georgia, there were a lot of people gathering in my house. So everyday I had something new. Something, which reminded me that I was Georgian and my country was in very difficult situation. Every Georgian recalls April 9th 1991. By the strange faith the Supreme Court of Republic of Georgia declared independence of the country from Soviet Union on the same date as the tragedy in 1989. Finally my country was independent! But now was the time to rebuilt economy, social life, military-everything! After some political crises, I saw one person whom I liked very much and I thought that he could help the country in this difficult situation. Gia (Giorgi) Chanturia was the chairman of the National Democrat Party. I thought he , his party and ideology could help us. I was too young to join even youth union of the party in those years, I was just 12. Unfortunately for me, for my country and thousands of people who knew Gia, he was barbarously killed couple month before the presidential elections. Who were the murderers nobody knows. After his death his wife Irina Sarishvili-Chanturia was the leader of the NDP, but it was clear that National Democrats lost their ideological father and friend.
In 1997 I finally chose to enter the youth organization of the NDP. Young National Democrat was established in 1993 (actually along with NDP, YND was founded in 1918-1921, but during the Soviet Union it stopped to function.), by Gia Chanturia and some others. YND does have two other branches-" Pupils' and Youth Union" and "Students' and Youth Union". Clearly, I entered PYU, in 1997. After some month of hard work I was appointed as the assistant of the Secretary General and in 1997 Fall elections was elected as Secretary General of the PYU. Before I came to the organization with my team there were 20 people in PYU and we had just Tbilisi organization. Well, after one year we got about 180 members, 3 regional and 1 district organizations. In October of 1998 I was elected as a chairman of the organization and also I was elected in the main committee of YND.
To be in YND (AED in Georgian) is not just willing of political carrier. I realized that to me it is very important to follow the principles of democracy and national pride and protect the history and culture of my country. The YND provides me with all ideological material I need and who knows, maybe one day I'll really help my people and my country.