Mufti and His Accompanying Muslims Not Allowed into Samtatskaro Village

Mufti of Kvemo Kartli region Jemal Adadze and his accompanying people, who were traveling to Samtatskaro village in Dedoplistskaro district to attend traditional Friday prayers, were not allowed into the village. Jemal Adamdze told ICK that village attorney Gulnara Nadirashvili met them together with villagers at the entrance to Samtatskaro and prohibited to enter the village.

“The village attorney was waiting for us together with several villagers. They were aggressive and warned us against entering the village if we wanted to avoid problems. We did not want to tense the situation and called police. Police officers discharged the situation but we still cannot enter the village. People are threatening us with creating problems. So, we appealed to human rights organizations for help,” Jemal Adadze said.

ICK’s correspondent reported from the village that situation is calm in Samtatskaro but locals claim they will not allow Muslims to conduct prayers and open mosque in the house they had purchased in the village.

Muslims were not allowed to conduct traditional Friday prayers in Samtatskaro village last week too. Hers living in the village, who are Christians, expelled Muslim people from their own building, which was purchased for the religious services. Hers are against opening Muslim mosque in the village. The Muslims urge the government to help them.

Samtatskaro is located on Georgian-Azerbaijan border where eco-migrants from Adjara and Hers from Hereti live in. Hers left Azerbaijan because they had not converted into Muslim religion. Number of population is over 1500. There was no controversy between Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the village. The conflict started after the Muslim Department purchased a building to open a mosque in Samtatskaro.

Information Center of Kakheti