Patriot camps

The Patriot camps (Georgian: პატრიოტული ბანაკი) are state-sponsored summer camps for the teenagers of Georgia.

The Patriot camps were initiated by the president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili in 2005. Each year tens of thousands of young Georgians attend summer camps for ten days, with expenses paid by the Georgian government. Participation is voluntary. In 2007 seven patriot camps will operate.

The declared aim of the project is to raise national pride in young Georgians and to counter social problems of the country. The participants are from poor backgrounds aged 15 to 20. Activities in the camps focus on sporting and cultural events. President Saakashvili, the initiator of the program, himself a former pioneer, rebutted any parallels to Soviet Young Pioneer camps, saying that this is as different as it can get.

The patriot camps have been criticized for featuring informal military training (e.g., firing AK-47 rifles). Georgia's opposition has also criticized the camps for Saakashvili through them trying to gain political scores among the young people. Each year upon closing of the camps a large meeting is organized in the Palace of Sports, with Saakashvili addressing the Patriots.

One of the Patriot camps was opened in 2007 at the village of Ganmukhuri close to the cease-fire line with breakaway Abkhazia with the declared purpose of bringing Georgian and Abkhaz teenagers together.

In July 2007 the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, expressed concern that Georgia's decision to open a Patriot camp at Ganmukhuri could fuel tensions along the Abkhaz-Georgian ceasefire line, with Georgian officials in response accusing Ban Ki-moon of seeking appeasing of Russia. Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili and newly appointed Conflict Resolution Minister Davit Bakradze responded that the UN should concentrate on "major issues," such as the repatriation of Georgian displaced persons referring to the victims of the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia.

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Wikipedia