Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenians, Georgians In Unholy Row Over Disputed Church

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenians, Georgians In Unholy Row Over Disputed Church

    ARMENIANS, GEORGIANS IN UNHOLY ROW OVER DISPUTED CHURCH
    Nina Akhmeteli

    Expatica Germany
    http://www.expatica.com/de/lifestyle_leisu re/news_focus/Armenians_-Georgians-in-unholy-row-o ver-disputed-church-_13867.html
    April 1 2009

    In a country that has undergone years of ethnic and political discord,
    including a war with Russia last August, a debate over the ownership
    of a church is only one of its many divisive internal battles.

    Amidst the rambling homes and cobblestone streets of the Georgian
    capital Tbilisi's old town, two stone churches stand side-by-side,
    sharing a snow-covered courtyard.

    One, the Georgian Orthodox Church of Jvaris Mama, is alive with
    parishioners and lit candles. Its neighbour, the Norashen Church,
    sits lonely and locked.

    Unused for nearly seven decades, the Norashen Church is at the heart
    of long-running dispute between the Armenian Apostolic and the Georgian
    Orthodox Churches.

    The dispute has flared again in recent months, raising ethnic tensions
    in Georgia as it is still recovering from an August war with Russia
    over the South Ossetia region, where ethnic Ossetian separatists
    broke from Georgian control in the early 1990s.

    Ownership disputes between the two churches are common but the Norashen
    Church has come to symbolise what some in the local Armenian community
    say is the "Georgianisation" of traditionally Armenian churches.

    Armenian experts say the Norashen Church was built in the 15th century
    for the local Armenian community and continued to operate until it was
    shut down during the Soviet Union's anti-religion drive in the 1930s.

    The Georgian church says there is no conclusive evidence that Norashen
    was Armenian and that its origins are open to debate. When the Soviet
    Union collapsed in 1991, ownership of the church fell to the Georgian
    government and the dispute has yet to be resolved.

    The latest flare-up occurred when local Armenians claimed that
    the priest of the Georgian church next to Norashen, Father Tariel
    Sikinchelashvili, tried to remove Armenian tombstones from its
    graveyard.

    Alexander Ohanian, the head of the head of Armenian Cooperation Centre
    of Georgia, said that in mid-November he saw a bulldozer working in
    the churchyard and that two Armenian tombstones had been removed.

    Local Armenians gathered in the yard and confronted Father Tariel,
    accusing him of seeking to remove evidence that the church is Armenian.

    The tombstones were later returned but Ohanian said local Armenians
    don't believe their removal was an accident.

    'All I can do now is pray'

    "It is too naive to think that he acted alone, without permission
    from his superiors," Ohanian said.

    A senior Armenian priest in Tbilisi, Father Narek Kushian, said the
    Georgian church has been trying to convert the building since 1989.

    "Father Tariel is trying to seize the church and add Orthodox
    attributes to raise questions about its origin," Kushian said. "The
    inscription on the cupola of the church was erased by him and the
    main attributes showing this church is Armenian, such as the altar,
    have also been destroyed."

    Approached in his church, Father Tariel refused to comment on the
    allegations.

    "I am just too tired of it all," he said. "I've done as much as I
    can and all I can do now is pray."

    A spokesman for the Georgian Orthodox Church, Davit Sharashenidze, said
    a commission is to resolve ownership disputes between the two churches.

    "We can't say unambiguously that it is an Armenian church, as there
    is also evidence backing opposite claims," he said. "The Georgian
    side has similar claims regarding Georgian churches in Armenia and
    these issues need study and research by scientists."

    A complicated politics

    But the dispute has already become political as well as religious.

    In recent weeks, hundreds of Armenians have participated in rallies
    in Yerevan to protest against the alleged destruction of Armenian
    cultural monuments in Georgia.

    The dispute was also raised during a December visit by Armenian Prime
    Minister Tigran Sarkisian to Georgia.

    Georgian Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili said after meeting his
    Armenian counterpart that he hoped no issues would be "politically
    exploited" to drive a wedge between the two peoples.

    The issue is especially sensitive in Georgia, where interethnic
    conflicts in South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia,
    have left thousands dead.

    After the Abkhaz and Ossetians, Armenians are the third-largest ethnic
    minority in Georgia, with nearly 250,000 Armenians in the country of
    4.3 million.
Working...
X