A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 19 - Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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Adzharia crisis passesPATRIARCH ILIA II EXPRESSES SATISFACTION WITH BLOODLESS END TO CRISIS IN ADZHARIA (Portal-credo.ru, 6 May 2004) - The head of the Georgian Orthodox church, Catholicos Patriarch of all-Georgia Ilia II expressed his satisfaction with the bloodless end to the political crisis in Adzharia, RIA Novosti reports. "I greet you on the day of St. George and I recall what awaits Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. I congratulate all Georgian people for the victory in Adzharia and for freedom," the patriarch said on 6 May at a festive liturgy in the Kashvet church of St. George in Tbilisi. According to the head of the Georgian church, "it is a great fortune that everything has been resolved without bloodshed." The Orthodox church honors the memory of the great holy martyr St. George the Conqueror on 6 May. (tr. by PDS) EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF HOLY SYNOD OF GEORGIAN APOSTOLIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Holy Synod reviewed details of the causes of this tense situation and noted that normal relations between the government of Georgia and the administration of Adzharia have been disrupted. The Holy Synod viewed the current events negatively. The attempt to exceed the limits of the Georgian constitution, the violations of human rights, illegal arrests, destruction of bridges and other negative phenomena have produced disturbances and the isolation of the local population from the rest of the country. The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox church has resolved to compose an extraordinary appeal to all of Georgia. APPEAL OF CATHOLICOS PATRIARCH OF ALL-GEORGIA ILIA II AND THE HOLY SYNOD OF THE GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
To his excellency
Mikhail Saakashvili, president of Georgia The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox church and all of our nation promotes a single desire--that there be peace, prosperity and unanimity in our country, and thus we are profoundly saddened by those tense circumstances which have developed in Georgia in connection with the situation in Adzharia. The population views with great hope those political and economic achievements that now are developing in our country. The international authority of Georgia is gradually growing, which is the work of Georgian President M. Saakashvili and the current leadership. The realistic prospect of the restoration of the territorial integrity of the country has arisen. A tendency to remedy social and economic problems has been observed. The positive results that our population has awaited for years are being sensed. In order that these processes become irreversible the country needs peace and harmony. Adzharia is a sacred and inseparable part of our motherland from where the light of Christ was spread throughout the whole country. Here preached the apostles Andrew the First-called, Simon the Canaanite, and Matthew. It is significant that throughout recent years, with the support of Aslan Abashidze, many churches and monasteries were built in Adzharia, ecclesiastical high schools and child care facilities have functioned, as have parish schools and homes for the elderly and orphans. The synod of the Georgian Orthodox church considers that the negative phenomena that have developed in Adzharia are the result of misunderstanding and the interference of external forces. These questions that arouse misunderstanding should be resolved in a peaceful manner by negotiations. Bloodshed is impermissible. In the existing tense situation we consider the following to be necessary: 1. Cease mutually disparaging declarations. 2. The Holy Synod appeals to the president that the leaders of the autonomous republic and his associates be guaranteed immunity in order to make the beginning of the process of negotiations realistic. 3. Create a commission which will help to resolve existing problems. The decisions of the commission should be obligatory for all Georgia. 4. The commission should assure the return of Adzharia to the constitutional system which is necessary for peaceful, legal, and constitutional dialogue. 5. Conduct the disarming of the population, including illegal armed formations, both in Adzharia and throughout all of Georgia. 6. Immediately restore transportation links between Adzharia and the rest of Georgia. 7. Cease the violation of human rights and illegal arrests. 8. There should be more tact and caution in reporting events in Adzharia or elsewhere in mass media so that an expansion of the situation not occur. They should clearly remember that we have not only a right but also a responsibility before God and humanity. 9. It should be clear to all that the leadership of the country should control all regions. We appeal to the population of Adzharia saying The Georgian Orthodox church will always stand alongside you. Manifest the peace and reason that are yours so that your wise decision will become the basis of peaceful coexistence and prosperity. We pray for you and for all of Georgia "the Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless the people with his peace." Amen. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 May 2004) LEADER OF RESTIVE GEORGIAN PROVINCE PUSHED FROM POWER, KEY VICTORY FOR COUNTRY'S PRESIDENT by Tamazi Gendzekhadze (Associated Press, 6 May 2004) - Two days of popular protests pushed the leader of Georgia's restive Adzharia region from power, and the Georgian president flew into the province before dawn Thursday to celebrate the departure of his longtime foe. Combative Adzharian leader Aslan Abashidze's decision to leave immediately defused tension in the Black Sea province and was a major victory for Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili as he tries to bring the turbulent former Soviet republic under tighter central control. Saakashvili addressed a jubilant crowd in Adzharia early Thursday, praising demonstrators who had pressed for Abashidze's resignation. "You are heroic people," Saakashvili told the crowd through a loudspeaker in a window of Abashidze's stately former residence in Batumi. He told supporters they had "demonstrated to the whole world your striving for democracy." "With the resignation of Abashidze, a new epoch begins not only in the lives of the residents of the autonomous republic, but in Georgia as a whole - an epoch of democracy, of peace, an epoch of real unity," Saakashvili said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Abashidze has ruled here since Georgia's 1991 independence from the Soviet Union and has defied Georgia's central authorities for years. Under Abashidze, customs duties and revenues from Batumi's lucrative port were withheld from Tbilisi's coffers and political dissent was repressed. He is a longtime critic of Saakashvili, who led massive demonstrations in November that led the country's first president, Eduard Shevardnadze, to step down. Saakashvili went on to win presidential elections by a landslide in January on promises to reunite Georgia, fractured when two regions broke away in wars in the early 1990s. Home to a major oil transshipment port and with access to the Black Sea, Adzharia was a top priority, and he accused Abashidze of running the province like a feudal lord. Fears of a humanitarian crisis and possibly bloodshed ballooned Sunday, when Abashidze cut rail links and blew up bridges connecting it with the rest of Georgia, a move he claimed was necessary to prevent Georgian forces from invading. The cutoff raised wide fears of food shortages and other economic troubles in Adzharia, and Abashidze's support appeared to deteriorate soon after. While thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Batumi, only a few hundred Abashidze backers turned out - a sharp contrast to the throngs that gathered in March, chanting his nickname, "Babu," or "grandfather." Abashidze reportedly left the regional capital Batumi after several hours of talks late Wednesday with a top Russian official who had flown in to defuse rising tensions. Crowds chanted Saakashvili's nickname - "Misha!" - and waved the red-and-white Georgian flag during the demonstration early Thursday. What had been an anti-Abashidze protest turned into a celebration with a fireworks display after officials said Abashidze resigned and left with Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov. Russia has strategic interests in Georgia, including two Soviet holdover military bases, one of them in Adzharia. The United States also sees Georgia as strategically important because of its location and role as host of a pipeline that is to bring Caspian Sea oil westward. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States "welcomes the peaceful restoration of Tbilisi's authority" in Adzharia and called it a "historic day for all the people of Georgia." The protests that began Tuesday in Batumi were an unusually large and vivid manifestation of opposition support in the tightly controlled province. On Sunday, Saakashvili gave Abashidze a 10-day ultimatum to disband Adzharia's paramilitary groups, end repression of opposition political organizations and meet other demands. On Tuesday, he ordered armed groups and police in Adzharia to disobey instructions from Abashidze on enforcing a state of emergency.
The commander of
a police division in Batumi, Akhmed Devadze, said
Wednesday that 175 police patrolmen had joined the
protesters. An influential deputy Adzharian
interior minister left the region and met with
authorities in Tbilisi, who said he had also
switched sides. |
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