Global InformationDzala ertobashia information
 | This article does not cite any sources. (December 2009) |
Dzala ertobashia (Georgian: ძალა ერთობაშია, pronounced [dzala eɾtʰobaʃia], "Strength is in Unity") is the official motto of Georgia.
It originally comes from a famous fable by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani of the same name. According to this fable, once upon a time there lived a king with thirty sons. One day, when he was dying, he called his sons and asked them to bring arrows. Then king asked them to break the arrows one by one, and the sons did. The king then asked them to break the arrows all at once, and they could not. The king said: "Teach O my sons from this fact, that there is ‘strength in unity.’ If you are together, an enemy cannot do you wrong, but if you are divided, victory will be on their side."
The problem of national unity has been a perennial problem in the history of the Georgian state and the Georgian people, exemplified by the ongoing Russian occupations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.