17:11 23/11/2009 » Comments
Let’s defend St Gevorg Church of Mugnetsi
“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.
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