Georgian Patriarch: It seems a third force instigates tension between Georgia and Azerbaijan
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, May 29
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II says that “other force” is trying to stir unrest between Georgia and Azerbaijan through using the issue of Georgia’s Davit Gareja monastery complex, located at the conditional border between Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Ilia II made the statement early on Tuesday, before the rally held by clerics and public groups in Davit Gareja, “to show everyone that Gareji is Georgia and no one will be allowed to stir up unrest in the region.”
The rally participants also mentioned the third force, which is interested in the tension. Many of them openly said that the third force is Russia, which currently occupied 20 percent of the Georgian territory.
Hundreds of Georgians gathered in Gareji stated that “Azerbaijan is a friendly nation,” and the issue should be settled only in a peaceful manner.
“Gareja is the sixth century Georgian monastery complex and it is must be on the Georgian territory when the border is agreed on with Azerbaijan,” the rally participants told the media.
The reports as if the Azerbaijani activists could have held a counter-rally turned out to be false.
Georgian and Azerbaijani border guards were jointly monitoring the peaceful rally.
Georgian top officials, Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze and Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, said that the territorial issue with “our ally Azerbaijan” will be settled only in a peaceful manner, with the help of the Georgian-Azerbaijani border commission.
The commission met in Baku last week and is scheduled to meet in Tbilisi in the coming days.
A member of the United National Movement opposition Salome Samadashvili says that “invisible Russian flags are flying in Gareja,” and that it is obvious that the county is trying to make the situation tensed.
Sergi Kapanadze, a member of the European Georgia opposition, stated that some so-called patriots, are making aggressive statements, which might strain the situation. He said that the issue should be settled only peacefully and diplomatically.
Georgian third President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is wanted for several possible crimes in Georgia, stated in his Facebook live that he is ready to get involved in the negotiations as a mediator and “settle the border issue.”
He stated that the current state leadership is unable to do this.
Parliament Speaker Kobakhidze responded that he “had nine years to solve the issue.”
In April, Azerbaijani borders guards did not allow visitors and clerics into the part of the monastery complex, triggering the public outcry in Georgia.
Clerics stated that the situation at the site became complicated after the visit of Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili several days before the closure, who urged for the “resolution of the border issue with Azerbaijan in a timely manner.”
Zurabishvili stated on Monday that she definitely raised the issue, as the country must have agreed borders with its neighbors.
Georgia has an agreed border only with Turkey. Borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia have not been marked since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.
The problem of closure in April was temporarily resolved in several days after the negotiations between Georgian and Azerbaijani top officials.
Davit Gareja is located in the South-eastern Georgia, on the semi-desert Iori plateau and comprises 22 rock-hewn monasteries and over 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells.
Azerbaijani border guards also closed the 6th-century site back in 2012, causing the protest of hundreds of Georgians who marched to Davit Gareja. After the backlash the site was reopened.
