AZG Armenian Daily #078, 30/04/2005

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MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING OVER ARMENIAN ISSUES IN GEORGIA

A joint group of Armenian and Georgian specialists to find out to whom 9
Armenian churches on Georgia’s territory belong seems to be emerging as a
result of a meeting between RA National Assembly speaker, Artur
Baghdasarian, and Georgia’s Patriarch Ilya II. Despite Patriarch’s intension
to study only Norashen church of Tbilisi, Baghdasarian insisted that the
scientists’ group traced the history of 8 other Armenian churches, too.
Patriarch Ilya II assured Baghdasarian that the jural status of Armenian
churches in Georgia will be defined as soon as the Georgian parliament
adopts a law on religion.

National Assembly speaker met yesterday representatives of Armenian
community in Georgia. The primary concern of the community representatives
was improving social conditions of Javakhk residents, preservation of
Armenian churches, renovation of educational programs of Armenian language,
literature and history in 150 Armenian schools and retraining teachers.

Artur Baghdasarian underscored that President Saakashvili took commitment to
solve issues of Javakhk and said that RA education minister will visit
Georgia in near future to study problems in this sphere.

Baghdasarian’s meeting with Georgian prime minister, Zurab Noghaideli,
scheduled today will finish his two-day official visit.

By Nana Petrosian in Tbilisi