Irakli Gharibashvili and Shalva Papuashvili visited the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures and laid flowers at the grave of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

Georgia’s first President Zviad Gamsakhurdia would have turned 84 today.

To be informed, the Soviet-era dissident, writer and politician was elected in 1991 with 87 percent of the vote and served in the office through the political and social turmoil in the country following the dissolution of the USSR and declaration of independence by Georgia.

He was forced from power, and eventually from the country, in a 1991 coup, before returning from exile in September 1993. Gamsakhurdia died in unclear circumstances in the village of Khibula in western Samegrelo region of Georgia on December 31, 1994 and later was re-buried in the village of Jikhashkari of the same region.

Reportedly, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's body was found with a single bullet wound to the head, with several of Gamsakhurdia’s guards claiming he had committed suicide. However, the first President’s family strongly opposes this account of events and claims he was killed.

The current Georgian Dream authorities reopened investigation into Gamsakhurdia’s death in 2015, three years after taking office