FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
========================================== ======
Wednesday 25 October 2006
GEORGIA: "ORCHESTRATED REACTION" AGAINST RELIGIOUS MINORITIES’ BUILDINGS
Georgian politicians and the Georgian Orthodox Church continue to deny the
continued impossibility for religious minorities to openly build places of
worship, Forum 18 News Service has found. "The difficulties we face are
linked not to laws, but to a climate that has been artificially created
and which forces us – in order not to stir up aggression – not to
undertake construction," Catholic Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto told Forum 18.
Amongst religious minorities facing this intolerance are Baptist churches,
Pentecostals, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the True Orthodox Church.
Elene Tevdoradze, Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights and Civic
Integration Committee, denied to Forum 18 that problems exist, as did the
Deputy Chair of the Committee, Lali Papiashvili. She told Forum 18 "No,
no, that’s not true. It’s obviously not true." Zurab Tskhovrebadze of the
Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate also denied that religious minorities face
obstruction in building.
GEORGIA: "ORCHESTRATED REACTION" AGAINST RELIGIOUS MINORITIES’ BUILDINGS
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;
Three years after the change of regime that saw the end of most violent
mob attacks on religious minorities, Georgia’s political class remains in
denial about the continued impossibility for religious minorities to build
new places of worship openly, religious minority leaders have complained to
Forum 18 News Service. "Especially in places which had Catholic churches
which have been confiscated by the Orthodox, the Catholic faithful have
the right – as a minimum – to have a church. But up till today this
remains impossible," Georgia’s Catholic bishop Giuseppe Pasotto told Forum
18 from the capital Tbilisi [T’bilisi] on 19 October. He said there has
been no improvement since 2003.
Forum 18 has found that while some faiths can quietly build unobtrusive
places of worship under the guise of private homes or offices – as long as
they do not look like places of worship – religious communities whose
places of worship are distinctive and indeed almost any place of worship
of a minority faith in a small village face obstruction or de facto bans.
"In the major centres all construction recognised as Catholic arouses an
orchestrated reaction," Bishop Pasotto complained. "The difficulties we
face are linked not to laws, but to a climate that has been artificially
created and which forces us – in order not to stir up aggression – not to
undertake construction."
This is a long standing problem facing religious minorities within Georgia
(see F18News 14 November 2003
< e_id=184>). A major factor
behind it is that some Georgian Orthodox priests persistently incite mob
violence against religious minorities (see eg. F18News 25 May 2005
< e_id=569>). Intolerance of
religious minorities is widespread within Georgian society, despite some
legal improvements (see F18News 24 May 2005
< e_id=568>).
Typical of the "aggression" Bishop Pasotto complained of was a mob
invasion in September and subsequent petition campaign against the
completion of an Assyrian Catholic centre in Tbilisi. This will also
include a sanctuary for religious worship (see F18News 19 October 2006
< e_id=857>).
In 2005, a church that a Baptist community was trying to build in
Zestafoni, a town 45 km (30 miles) east of Kutaisi [K’ut’aisi], was
attacked. "We laid the foundations, but as soon they found out, the
Orthodox priest came with others and broke them down," Pastor Levan
Akhalmosulishvili, a leading member of the independent Association of
Christian-Baptist Churches, told Forum 18 on 18 October. "The Orthodox
told us openly: ‘Society, government and parliament support us!’" Building
work has still not been able to resume, he added.
Also forced to a halt was construction of a home for a Baptist deacon, in
the village of Velistsikhe in Gurjaani district of eastern Georgia. This
was attacked by mobs in 2004 (see F18News 5 November 2004
< e_id=446>). "The district and
village authorities have told us not to use the half-finished building,"
Pastor Akhalmosulishvili reported. "Criminals threatened to destroy it if
we resume building. The authorities told us they would not defend us."
Asked what officials say when congregations of his Association ask if they
can build places of worship, Akhalmosulishvili responded: "They look at us
as though we’re mad. It’s fantasy to even think of building."
Giorgi Khutsishvili, head of the Tbilisi-based International Center of
Conflict Negotiations, is blunt. "Can religious minorities build places of
worship? No," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 18 October. "This becomes
such a hot topic." He attributes this to the "mentality of the majority"
who, he says, regard the Orthodox Church as having the status of a state
Church. "The Orthodox can build any church anywhere, but all others are
alien."
Khutsishvili says every time "fundamentalists" learn a non-Orthodox place
of worship is being built they move in. "The government is quiet and does
nothing," he told Forum 18. "It tries to mediate, calming the
fundamentalists and the religious minorities. But it doesn’t resist the
fundamentalists, so they continue their activities."
He added that the lack of a religion law that would allow religious
minority communities to gain legal status as religious organisations (only
the Orthodox Patriarchate has such legal status) also hinders building
minority places of worship.
Bishop Pasotto complains that in recent years all the Catholic Church has
been able to build is "tiny places of worship in out of the way villages".
He expresses frustration that officials – who he says are not opposed to
Catholic activity – tell them they cannot change the situation. "The most
unpleasant thing is that from the political side, for all religious
problems – such as over a law on religion – there is complete inaction. Is
this from incompetence? Is this from fear?"
Bishop Pasotto’s frustration is echoed by Archbishop Malkhaz
Songulashvili, head of the Georgian Baptist Church, the largest Baptist
church in the country. "Everyone has the right to build a church, mosque
of temple, but this is impossible at the moment," he told Forum 18 on 4
October. "Religious communities cannot build a place of worship, only an
NGO office."
But Elene Tevdoradze, a parliamentary deputy who chairs its Human Rights
and Civic Integration Committee, denies this. "There’s no such law that
bans non-Orthodox faiths from building – if minority faiths do everything
according to the law, they can build places of worship," she claimed to
Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 18 October. "They shouldn’t be afraid. The policy
of the government is clear: everyone has the right to carry out their
faith." But she dismissed the experience of religious minorities of
repeated obstruction and threats of aggression when they try to build.
Her lack of concern was shared by the Deputy Chair of the Committee, Lali
Papiashvili. Asked by Forum 18 why religious minorities cannot build
places of worship she responded: "No, no, that’s not true. It’s obviously
not true." She said no religious minorities have complained to her about
this. "The government’s doesn’t have a policy not to allow other faiths to
build. Until we get complaints that they have problems I can’t believe
this." Asked whether she has talked to religious minorities she said "No."
Zurab Tskhovrebadze, spokesperson for the Orthodox Patriarchate, equally
denies that religious minorities face obstruction in building. "Any
churches can be built," he insisted to Forum 18 on 19 October. "There is
no law that says the Georgian Orthodox Church has to agree any such
building." Asked why this happens in practice, he responded: "When we meet
people of other faiths, they don’t complain to us about this."
One community that has not tried to build any new places of worship in the
past fifteen years but which faces absolute refusal to return its historic
places of worship confiscated during the Soviet period is the Armenian
Apostolic Church. Levon Isakhanyan, assistant to the Armenian Bishop of
Georgia, Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, said his Church is currently seeking the
return of six churches, five in Tbilisi and one in the southern town of
Akhaltsikhe [Akhalts’ikhe], which has a majority Armenian population. "All
these churches, that served the Armenian community for centuries, are today
shut and made no use of whatsoever by any denomination," he told Forum 18
from Tbilisi on 25 October. "The condition of these churches is
appalling."
Isakhanyan cited the diocese’s lack of status as a legal entity – a
problem shared by all non-Orthodox religious communities that refuse to
register as non-profit entities – as an excuse officials use to refuse to
consider such applications. He also complained that politicians and
nationalists who oppose the churches’ return often claim that their
ownership is "disputed". He insists the Georgian government has
responsibility to resolve the Church’s problems.
Likewise, Bishop Pasotto complains that six Catholic churches in major
towns – the port of Batumi [Bat’umi], Kutaisi [K’ut’aisi], Gori, Ivlita,
Ude and Akhaltsikhe – were "illegally" given to the Orthodox and have not
been returned, a problem he points out is shared by the Armenian Apostolic
Church. By contrast, he says the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate has been
able to recover its property confiscated during the Soviet period.
Asked why he believes non-Orthodox cannot build places of worship, Bishop
Pasotto responded: "The idea that a church that is built would be a public
sign which could influence people and be a source of proselytism against
the Orthodox Church."
Forum 18 could find only a handful of non-Patriarchate places of worship
now being openly built without problems. Fr Gela Aroshvili, a True
Orthodox priest under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Ephraim Spanos of
Boston, USA, reported that two of his congregations that had long been
obstructed from building can now do so.
He said the Tbilisi congregation began work on a small church in February
in the city’s Saburtalo district with permission from the local authority,
though the church is registered as a private house. He said the exterior is
now complete, but the interior is not yet ready to allow services to take
place. "It looks like an Orthodox church, but there’s no sign outside
saying it’s a True Orthodox church," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 18
October. "I don’t know if the Patriarchate complained, but we’ve faced no
problems." Fr Aroshvili added that their congregation in Kutaisi has also
gained permission to build a house. He insisted they would build it in
traditional Orthodox church style with a cross on the top.
However, he said there has been no progress in rebuilding their burnt-out
church destroyed by a mob in the village of Shemokmedi in south western
Georgia in October 2002 (see F18News 7 April 2003
< e_id=27>). "We’re not hurrying,
but we do want to rebuild," Fr Aroshvili told Forum 18. "But the
authorities are still not responding."
One other minority place of worship that is being openly built is a new
church for a Russian-speaking Pentecostal congregation in Tbilisi, which
was repeatedly prevented by the police and by violent mobs from holding
services in the home of the pastor, Nikolai Kalutsky. Pastor Kalutsky won
an eventual victory in the Constitutional Court in May 2005 that such
bans, attacks and obstructions violated his religious freedom (see F18News
25 May 2005 < 569>). Following
this court victory, a Presidential Decree awarded the congregation land in
Tbilisi’s Isani district to build an alternative place of worship.
Kalutsky told Forum 18 that official registration of the land as his
property was completed at the beginning of October, and work began
immediately. "Permission was given for a private house, but the building
will look like a church from the outside," he told Forum 18 from the
building site on 24 October. "We couldn’t do it any other way because we
have no legal status as a religious community." He said the Prosecutor’s
Office had summoned him to tell him that, if the community faces any
obstruction, it is to notify the Prosecutor immediately. Pastor Kalutsky
was told that the Prosecutor will then take appropriate measures to allow
building to proceed.
Asked why his congregation is now able to build on land given free of
charge by the state, after so many years of harassment, Kalutsky
responded: "What happened to us reached the outside world – everyone had
heard of them. Politicians realised this."
Bishop Oleg Khubashvili, who leads the Pentecostal Union to which
Kalutsky’s congregation belongs, told Forum 18 that the Union has been
able to buy a building in Tbilisi to turn into its offices. (The Union has
legal status as a non-profit organisation). "Later we plan to turn part of
it into a sanctuary," he told Forum 18 on 24 October. "If we built a
church from scratch, I can’t say what the reaction would be."
The Jehovah’s Witnesses – who suffered more than a hundred violent
attacks, mostly unpunished, between 1999 and 2003 – say that they have
been able to build Kingdom Halls across Georgia in the last few years,
including about ten in Tbilisi. "It’s strange, given all the attacks,"
Jehovah’s Witness leader Genadi Gudadze told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 24
October. "Sometimes life is surprising," he added, laughing.
But the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been careful. "We don’t advertise that
we’re building Kingdom Halls, but everyone round about knows what they
are," Gudadze reported. "They deliberately aren’t large or lavish, so
don’t attract attention."
Like other faiths, the Jehovah’s Witnesses choose not to place signs
outside their places of worship. "We understand that in a normal country
there should be such signs," Gudadze added. "But we don’t want extra
attention." (END)
For the comments of Georgian religious leaders and human rights activists
on how the legacy of religious violence should be overcome, see
< _id=499>
For more background see Forum 18’s Georgia religious freedom survey at
< id=400>
A printer-friendly map of Georgia is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=georgi& gt;
(END)
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