Religious Minorities Criticize Draft Law on Compulsory Military Service
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, March 19
Ruling Georgian Dream (GD) has been criticized by the religious minorities for their bill on compulsory military service, which reads that clergymen except for Orthodox ones, or students of theological institutions will no longer be able to enjoy the postponement of compulsory military service.
The draft has been initiated by the Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee, Irakli Sesiashvili, who submitted the initiative to the parliament on March 18.
Sesiashvili explained the initiative will not apply to Orthodox clergy since they are subject to the Concordat.
He added that the persons who, in compliance with freedom of conscience, religion, and faith, refuse to be engaged in compulsory military service, have the right and the obligation to be engaged in alternative labor service.
Orthodox Christianity is the official religion in Georgia, however, there are many other minorities too, that think the bill is discriminatory.
Chairman of the Muslim Union Tariel Nakaidze says it is unacceptable that one religion is privileged in a democratic state.
"The draft law contains a very serious problem and it is highly discriminatory, as one religion cannot be superior in relation to other religious organizations,” he said.
He explained that the Muslim community never avoids mandatory military service.
“We, as citizens of this country, are obliged to defend the country's democracy, secularism, and equality. We should not allow any kind of discrimination to be accepted,” he stressed.
Grigol Vashadze, leader of Power is in the Unity opposition movement, said that discrimination on religious grounds is unacceptable.
“I want to tell you that there is no European country, where people can avoid compulsory military service because of their religious opinions. A simple response to this is alternative labor service. Discrimination on religious ground is absolutely unacceptable”, he added.
Non-governmental organizations also believe the bill is discriminatory and unacceptable.
They released a statement saying the draft law will result in a clear deterioration of the legislation in the field of freedom of religion, as it does not allow cancellation of military obligations to all other religious clerics except for Orthodox priests.
The NGOs call on the Members of Parliament to critically evaluate and not support the legislative initiative prepared by Irakli Sesiashvili and to respect the equality and freedom of religion and to properly consider social discontent against the draft on compulsory military service.
