Azerbaijani increases number of border guards at Georgia’s David Gareji monastery
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, May 1
The number of Azerbaijani border guards at Georgia’s medieval David Gareji monastery complex located at the conditional border between Georgia and Azerbaijan has been “significantly increased”, Archimandrite Kirion has told the Georgian media.
The cleric says that after the incident on 23-24-25 April, when Azerbaijani border guards prevented clerics and tourists from entering the site, the number of Azerbaijani border guards has been increased to 17-18 men, while “only two were patrolling the area previously.”
“The number was increased shortly after the site was re-opened to visitors and clerics [following the negotiation of the Georgian and Azerbaijani governments] late on April 25,” Kirion says.
The cleric doubts the increase “indicates to the Azerbaijani interest to the historic site of Georgia,” which attracts hundreds of local and international tourists on a daily basis.
“I think that they [Azerbaijani] will not stop and will close the site again. The response of the Georgian government is that that they do not have information if it is the response at all,” Kirion says.
Georgia has not managed to agree on borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The border is agreed only with Turkey.
Kirion says that the situation at the site has become complicated after the visit of Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili early in the month, who urged for the “resolution of the border issue with Azerbaijani in a timely manner.”
The Georgian Foreign Ministry says that the “border issue is specific” and such topics should be settled calmly and in a friendly environment.
Azerbaijani border guards also closed the 6th-century site back in 2012 that was protested by the march of hundreds of Georgians to David Gareji, which ended by the re-opening of the site.
After the most recent incident, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported that the issue was “temporarily settled” and the clerics and visitors were allowed in.
David Gareji is a complex of 22 rock-hewn monasteries and more than 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells, located in Georgia’s south-east.
