ARMENIA: PROPERTY DISPUTES FUELING CHURCH TENSION BETWEEN YEREVAN AND TBILISI
Gayane Abrahamyan

EurasiaNet.org

Aug 10, 2011
NY

The Georgian Orthodox Church’s claim to several monasteries in
neighboring Armenia is stoking religious tension between the two
South Caucasus neighbors.

The fact that Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a
state religion (in 301 AD) is a source of national pride in Yerevan,
and government officials accordingly tend to be quick to defend the
prerogatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Authorities in Georgia,
the third country to make Christianity its state religion (in 326 AD,
after Ethiopia), feel similarly strongly about the rights of the
Georgian Orthodox Church. These deeply held opinions ensure that
cross-border property claims are a delicate topic.

Neither church today enjoys the status as a state religion, although
both represent the faith of a large majority of Armenians and Georgians
respectively.

In the post-Soviet era, church relations have travelled on a bumpy
path. A brief thaw set in after Georgian authorities in July approved
regulatory changes that would allow the Armenian Apostolic Church to
gain official status in Georgia. The Georgian Orthodox Church opposed
the revisions, but Armenian Apostolic Church representatives told
RFE/RL that it believed the objections did not have sectarian roots.

These days, property disputes are the primary source of tension. In
Armenia, the Georgian Orthodox Church desires official status and
ownership of five monasteries in areas near the Armenian-Georgian
border that it claims were founded as Georgian churches. Four of
the disputed properties are in the Lori region — the monasteries
of Akhtala, Kobair, Hnevanq, and Khuchap. The fifth, the Kirants
monastery, is in the Tavush region.

The Armenian Apostolic Church supports its Georgian counterpart’s
request for official status, but Armenian church leaders object to
handing over the monasteries.

“It [the Georgian Church] demands churches whose ownership is still
disputed,” claimed Armenian Apostolic Church spokesperson Father
Vahram Melikian.

The Armenian Apostolic Church contends that though these monasteries
may have functioned as Georgian believers during the 11th and 12th
centuries, they were built as Armenian Apostolic churches and should
remain so.

Practical considerations also should be taken into account, added
Father Vahram. The low number of ethnic Georgians living in Armenia
-only about 600, according to government data – does not justify the
transfer of five monasteries, Vahram contended.

During a June visit to Tbilisi, Armenian Apostolic Church Catholicos
Karekin II gave a more open-ended answer to Georgian Orthodox Church
Patriarch Ilia II on the matter. “You put your arguments down, we’ll
look at them. What prevents us from resolving these questions?”

Karekin II said in an unofficial videotaped chat posted on YouTube.

Ethnic Georgians in Armenia approach the church-property issue
gingerly. Local Georgian Orthodox believers do not yet have official
registration, a status that would grant them the ability to build
churches. The law is applicable to all religious communities with
at least 200 members. “It is unclear why they have not registered,”
Father Vahram commented.

At Yerevan’s St. George church, which serves a tiny Georgian Orthodox
community, the priest, Father Alexander, said that he petitioned
Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II in 2006 to be recognized
as a Georgian Orthodox church, “but didn’t get any answer.”

Religious rights watchdogs in the past have reported that some
Christian denominations skirt registration requirements since they
see it as an avenue for government interference.

Members of Armenia’s ethnic Georgian community tend to look to
Patriarch Ilia II and Catholicos Karekin II to take the lead on
tackling the question of ownership of the Lori and Tavush monasteries.

The property disputes go both ways. The Armenian Apostolic Church lays
claim to five churches in Tbilisi and one in the southern Georgian
town of Akhaltsikhe, which has a large ethnic Armenian population.

Father Vahram said the property claims were motivated by an Armenian
church desire to defend the religious rights of ethnic Armenians
living in Georgia. Such explanations, however, leave many in Tbilisi
feeling suspicious.

Editor’s note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com
in Yerevan.