Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze introduced the new head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs- Gela Geladze, to the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Irakli Kobakhidze expressed gratitude towards the former head of the Agency - Vakhtang Gomelauri, for the successful work carried out while serving on the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs.
“First of all, I would like to take advantage of this meeting and thank each of you, for your work. The role of each of you is very important with regards to strengthening our country. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is one of the main pillars of our state and we can boldly state that our strength lies within this agency. We are facing huge challenges, however, thanks to the strength of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the police, we have managed to overcome many challenges and I believe that this will continue in the future.
A special contribution in all of this belongs to Mr. Vakhtang Gomelauri, and I would like to separately outline his merit. Today I publicly thanked him for his many years of work. Mr. Vakhtang was the most experienced minister - for more than ten years he fulfilled a very difficult job. Obviously, it is not easy to lead this agency, especially in such times. Mentioning the last four years alone is enough to highlight what the Ministry and personally Minister had to face on the daily basis including very difficult tasks and challenges. Herewith, we were publicly told that there were four attempts to organize unrests, to change the government in our country through unrests, however, it was thanks to Mr. Vakhtang and you that we managed to prevent problems and the state managed to maintain, most importantly, the sovereignty, independence and security- thanks to Mr. Vakhtang for all this. Of course, his decision was saddening for us not only because he was a very strong leader within this institution, a strong manager, but also because we all had very friendly relations. Therefore, it was saddening both, from a human and from a professional point of views, however, after so many years, his decision was understandable for us. We also agreed here and made a promise that if necessary, he would return to state service and again stand at the front lines to serve the country, serve public security of our state, and for all the mentioned, I would like to express huge gratitude to Mr. Vakhtang. I would like to wish him all the best along with his wonderful family. I have hopes that we will accomplish many more things together in the future for the benefit of our country, thank you once again!” - noted Irakli Kobakhidze.
While introducing Gela Geladze for the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, Irakli Kobakhidze emphasized his many years of experience working in various public agencies and wished him success.
"I would like to introduce Mr. Gela Geladze, who has a very rich experience, approximately ten years of work experience in the structural units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He has also worked in other agencies for years, including other law enforcement agencies. Over the past few years, he has held very high positions in various state agencies. He was the Deputy Minister of Education, the Deputy Minister of Defense afterwards, and finally, to this day, the Deputy Head of the State Security Service. In addition, he is distinguished by his personal qualities and I am sure that you will be very comfortable working with him. I am sure that under the leadership of Mr. Gela, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will achieve greater successes in the future, I would like to wish him success," – stated the Prime Minister. Vakhtang Gomelauri thanked the Prime Minister and the ruling team for the support expressed during his work on various leading positions as well as to the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for their tireless work in maintaining security and the rule of law.
"Thank you very much, Prime Minister, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you, as well as to our team for the support. You are all aware that ten years is quite a long period of time, the direction of security service is very difficult, especially considering last events that developed while working there, and of course during my work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was noted by Prime Minister. We have not had such clashes on Rustaveli since the 90s, when we indeed faced challenges and managed to preserve the sovereignty and the country as a whole. I would like to thank each of you, I will always be by your side, I could not have done it alone, I did it together with you and would like to thank everyone, starting from the lowest rank and ending with you. Once again, thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister," - noted Vakhtang Gomelauri.
Vakhtang Gomelauri congratulated Gela Geladze on his appointment as Minister of Internal Affairs and wished him success in his future activities.
“I would like to congratulate Gela Geladze and wish him success. He is not a stranger to you, neither to me, and I would state that he is a member of our family. I will always be by your side when necessary. I will always be happy for your success, and I wish you a good luck,” - noted Vakhtang Gomelauri.
Gela Geladze thanked the Prime Minister for the expressed trust.
Gela Geladze also expressed his gratitude towards Vakhtang Gomelauri for conveying his support.
“Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for the trust, I’d like to thank Mr. Vakhtang. During my work in various public sectors, Mr. Vakhtang was an outstanding personal supporter of mine and thank you for that. Thank you for what you have done for this agency, starting with the reforms. I’d like to express my gratitude to each employee, your work is immeasurable, this environment is not strange to me, I know almost everyone and I am sure that we will achieve even greater success together,” - stated the Minister of Internal Affairs.
