Residents of South Ossetia dispute on relevance of actions on "Five Day War" anniversary

South Ossetia has held events in memory of the victims of the "Five-Day War" that began on August 8, 2008. Residents of Tskhinvali, who refused to attend these events, prefer to personally share their memories with their descendants. Those who attended them believe that such events are important for the next generations to remember the history.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that every year Georgia and South Ossetia, starting from August 7, commemorate the victims of the 2008 "Five-Day War". This year in Tbilisi, on August 8, relatives of the war victims visited the fraternal cemetery and memorials.

Liana Tebloeva, a resident of Tskhinvali, prefers not to attend the memorial actions. She recollected how in August 2008 she was hiding with her husband and daughter in the house basement, when Georgian soldiers invaded Tskhinvali.

Over the past 13 years, a new generation has grown up in Tskhinvali, which does not know wars, Ora Margieva has noted, adding that we need to think about how to live amid new threats.

"In August 2008, they tried to destroy us as a nation. If Russian troops had not entered the city, there would have been a mess of corpses and debris ... The war threw back the development of the independent state of South Ossetia," she said.

Now, thirteen years later, the South-Ossetian society is facing new problems, says Marina Bigulaeva, a resident of Tskhinvali.

"Now, people are worried about how to survive from salary to salary; prices in stores are abnormal," the woman said.

Memory actions are important for the next generations to remember, says Emma Tskhovrebova. She stressed that she advocates the preservation of memory, but the same type of actions held every year, in her opinion, are no longer perceived as mourning.