LET’S DEFEND ST GEVORG CHURCH OF MUGNETSI

Panorama.am
17:11 23/11/2009 " Society

"The activities of Armenian Culture Ministry and Apostolic Church
taken to protect Armenian churches of Georgia are assessed poorly,
not so effective which don’t meet the demands of the time. They
don’t correspond to those problems that our historical monuments
meet, otherwise we would not have to wait 20 years for a definite
status awarded to our churches adopting "law on religion"," Alexander
Ohanyan, the president of Armenian cooperation center to Georgia told
Panorama.am. Regarding to the collapse on 19 November of Armenian
domed St Gevorg of Mugnetsi in Tbilisi built in 1356, the president
of the center told that they have applied to the Georgian Minister of
Culture but they have not received any observation yet as the minister
is absent from the city. He says they don’t know "what the fate of
the collapsed church will be." It might be that they reconstruct it
as it’s located in a residential district. "It’s one of those five
churches which are in a rather disputable field: it’s being discussed
whether they are Armenian or Georgia. It’s under the authorization
of Georgian Ministry of Culture. Yesterday we witnessed an action of
state body against Armenian historical and cultural monuments," the
president said adding that until a definite decisions is made neither
of the churches will be standing. Panorama.am has been seriously
concerned about the collapse of Armenian churches in Georgian territory
(it’s worth reminding that the first collapsed church was St Virgin
of Shamkhoretsots in 1989) submitted a request to Armenian Culture
Ministry. We have requested the ministry and recommended to apply
to the Georgian side to transfer the collapsed church into Armenian
territory and to reconstruct here. Our request remained unanswered
as the deputy ministry was out of office then. Panorama.am applied
to Mother See Holy Etcmiatsin but the result did not differ as much
as the responsible figure to answer our request was absent and the
one we talked to, said such issue has not been discussed as long as
he was informed. It’s worth reminding that yesterday Mother See of
Holy Etcmiadsin hold a council to discuss the issue of collapsing
Armenian Church of Mugnetsi in Georgia. Armenian Apostolic Church
called on Georgian authorities to grant Armenian diocese status of
judicial person, to return Armenian churches back to Armenian diocese
of Georgia and to protect Armenian holly lands.