Natia Gogolashvili
“Incidents in Tchela caused incidents in Mokhe,” Mamuka Vashakmadze, Mufti of Samtskhe-Javakheti Region, evaluated the recent developments in the villages of Adigeni municipality. He said unless the government makes fair decision about the problem, the situation will get even tenser. On the other side, Orthodox citizens speak about the “threat of Turkish expansion” and claim that “if similar situation continues, it might end up in bloodshed.” Monitoring group of Human Rights Center arrived at the place to learn the details of the controversy.
In Samtskhe-Javakheti region muslim community mostly live in Adigeni municipality and their number is about 1500 families. The most - 7 mosques function in Adigeni municipality, 2 mosques are in Aspindza and 2 in Akhalkalaki. Adigeni municipality became the most problematic place recently and relation between orthodox and muslim citizens became very tense for the past two years.
There are several kilometers distance between Tchela and Mokhe villages. In 1940s Orthodox families from the mountainous region of Racha were resettled in the houses of Muslim Meskhs, who were deported to the Middle Asia by the soviet government. Afterwards, eco-migrants from Adjara Autonomous Republic - Muslim families, were also resettled to Tchela and Mokhe villages. In the period of soviet atheism both orthodox and muslim people were prohibited to conduct religious services. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the believers started restoration or construction of churches and mosques. Representatives of both religious communities state that ruins of their historical temples are still preserved in the villages of Adigeni district.
Leader of Tchela Mosque Jambul Abuladze said the state uses rude method to rule religious minorities and carries out violent policy against them. “Incompetent people work in the authority. The state fails to analyze ongoing processes in the country. The government wishes to implement its policy through violence though population will not accept it. Both previous and current authority oppressed Mufti. The state rudely interferes in the activities of the Mufti Department.”
Tchela
The situation got particularly tense in Tchela village after the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances of Georgia demolished minaret in the village on August 26, 2013. The form of the minaret’s deconstruction and conflicting situation on the place caused concern
of nongovernmental organizations including Human Rights Center.The official reason of the deconstruction was some faults found in the financial documents on the minaret. Mufti Mamuka Vashakmadze claims the documents were in absolute order.
“We ordered construction of the Minaret in Turkey; then we paid import tax at the customs’ office and brought the construction to Tchela village on July 14, 2013. We were preparing it for the installment during one week. Nobody created problem for us meanwhile. When we finished installment of the Minaret, representatives of the special service arrived at the place half an hour later. There was even physical controversy between us. They took muslims to the Akhaltsikhe security service department and rudely demanded “to cut that minaret down and take to your Adjara.” Jambul Abuladze and I were unofficially questioned. They forced me to dismantle the minaret but I would have never agreed on that. They even verbally and physically assaulted me but I cannot prove it because I was alone during interrogation. They took me to a separate room and said unless I would dismantle the minaret within 2-3 hours, they would do it by force. They imposed the responsibility on me. Head of security service department Akaki Machutadze was very aggressive; he is regional governor now,” Samtskhe-Javakheti region Mufti Mamuka Vashakmadze said.
He said he was called to the district administration several times; where he was compelled to dismantle the minaret. After one-month unsuccessful oppression, on August 26, 2013, representatives of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances unexpectedly arrived in Tchela village together with the riot police and started deconstruction of the minaret.
“Tchela Mosque is registered on my name. On that day, they took me out of home and ordered to leave the cell phone at home not to call anybody. They said the mosque was my property and they could not enter there without my permission. The representatives of the Revenue Service ordered me to come and open the gate as they wanted to dismantle the minaret. I did not allow them to enter the building, but they opened the gate and started deconstruction of the minaret,” local muslim resident Davit Chogadze recalled.
Muslims gathered near the mosque to protest the deconstruction process. MIA officers had blocked the road to minaret in Tchela that caused astonishment of Muslim community and conflict with law enforcement officers.
“22 demonstrators were arrested by the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; later, 13 persons were released after questioning. Administrative responsibility was imposed on six persons who were arrested by the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and three persons were charged with criminal offences. However, the charges were dropped after a few months,” the 2013 Parliamentary Report of the Public Defender of Georgia reads.
According to the clarifications of the muslim community, MIA officers were aggressive towards them - Otar Makaroidze, local muslim resident, recalled with Human Rights Center. “They pushed me down the ground and kicked. I managed to cover the face with hands but I almost died. Then they twisted my wrists, dragged me away and pushed into the car. They verbally insulted me and called Tatar. My clothes were torn.”
The minaret deconstruction caused deep concern of the society. Representatives of diplomatic corps, international and local nongovernmental organizations got interested in the August 26 incident. Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finances declared there were some faults in the import documents of the minaret construction when it was transported across the Turkey-Georgia border and in order to study the problem, it was necessary to demolish the minaret and take it to Tbilisi; they intended to return the construction back to Adigeni soon. Indeed, the minaret was returned to Adigeni municipality in three days, where it was stored but not
erected. On November 27, 2014 Adigeni municipal board issued permit on the construction of minaret in Tchela village and the minaret was re-erected on its original place. According to the official information, the minaret was re-erected, after the documents related to its construction were made compliant with the acting law of Georgia.
“The documents were in order from the very beginning. We paid 3 175 lari to the state budget, when the minaret was transported across the Turkey-Georgia border. However, as we later found out, based on the agreement between Turkey and Georgia, sanctuary constructions must not be taxed. However, the custom office granted status of mobile house to the construction and made us pay illegal tax for it. Now we appealed the decision at the court but the hearing has not been scheduled yet,” Jambul Abuladze told Human Rights Center.
According to the Public Defender’s assessment, deconstruction of the minaret in Tchela village had no legal grounds and absolutely contradicted the requirements of the Georgian legislation.
“The need for the verification of the accuracy of this very code became the formal ground for dismantling the minaret. As the result of the assessment carried out after the dismantling, the minaret was given the code that exempted it from import duty, because goods “Made in Turkey” are exempted from import duty under Articles 4 and 16 of the International Agreement on Free Trade concluded between Georgia and the Republic of Turkey on 21 November 2007. This would exclude I.M. and J.A. from being at fault,” the Public Defender’s report reads.
According to local muslim community, at midnight of November 27 the damaged minaret was returned to the village and re-erected; early in the morning representatives of the RS took photos of it. Reportedly, the photos were to be sent to the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius to prove to the West that problems with religious minority were resolved in the country. When the minaret was
re-erected, orthodox clergymen and parish arrived at the place and declared
that the decision of the local authority breached the rights of orthodox
community.
Samkhretis Karibche. Photo: November 27, 2013 Tchela village.
Orthodox clergymen and people arrived at the place when the minaret was re-erected in the village; they said it breached the rights of orthodox people.
“Police supervised the minaret installment process. They did not allow us to sign receive-acceptance protocol. Afterwards, we ourselves repaired the damaged parts of the minaret that cost additional 2 500 lari to us. As you see, plastic plates are broken on the minaret that cannot be repaired and we have to replace them. Nobody spoke about the reimbursement of the damage; they did not even discuss this issue,” Jambul Abuladze said.
Mokhe
Mokhe village is another scene of religious controversy in Adigeni municipality, where local muslim and orthodox population argues about the origin of the building located in the village center. The problem became particularly acute in October, 2014.
Adigeni district administration decided to arrange a library in the disputed building. The situation got particularly tense on October 22, when the workers of the building company, which won the bid competition, arrived at the place to deconstruct the building; local muslims protested it. Police officers made live chain around the building to allow the workers to work freely. However, it caused astonishment of the muslim community.
Police used force to disperse the demonstration; police cars were damaged during the controversy.
“Before incidents in Mokhe, regional governor Akaki Machutadze called me and Mamuka Vashakmadze to his office. It was not meeting but criminal settlement of the problem. As soon as we entered the room, he told us – everything will happen how I will order. He was very rude and banged on the table. We left his working room of course without any agreement. Next day people sent us to the Prime Minister to find out his position. We were called on the phone on our way to Tbilisi and informed that deconstruction of the building was about to start; people started gathering near the mosque,” Jambul Abuladze said.
Fridon Abashidze from the muslim community participated in the protest rally. He spoke about rude behavior of police officers. “Muslim people told police officers to temporarily suspend deconstruction process but they did not listen to us. 14 people were arrested. Police officers were pushing the detainees into the car by kicking them. Several protesters video-recorded the incident but police officers broke their cell phones. Our people indeed got very anxious but we did not start the physical controversy,” Fridon Abashidze said.
During the demonstration police officers arrested 14 muslims for the resistance to police. Three of them were charged under the criminal law; administrative responsibility and fine of 250 lari was imposed on eleven of them. Next day, the three detainees were released from the detention due to lack of the charge grounds.
Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili evaluated the fact and said that law enforcement officers breached the law. Several local inhabitants were arrested, who had physical injuries. The Public Defender requests investigation of the incident.
Lawyer Tamta Mikeladze of the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center said the investigation is being carried out in an unfair manner because MIA is investigating the alleged crime committed by the MIA officers. “Our organization appealed to the prosecutor’s office and requested them to adequately respond to the facts of the use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions by police officers. However, it is a problem that the prosecutor’s office forwarded our appeal to the MIA and now the latter is investigating the alleged crimes committed by its officers that contradicts the principle of institutional impartiality.”
Jambul Abuladze said the muslims have been requesting the local authority to assign the disputed building in Mokhe to the Muslim Department for a long time. “The history about the Mokhe mosque started in 2000. They intended to give the building to the Muslim Department as originally it was mosque building; we wanted it to be returned to its owner. It was unfair to keep the building in the conditions it has been in for so many years – destroyed without windows and roof. Even cows used to enter there and polluted the mosque. It was insulted our religious feelings. We requested the Adigeni administration to give this building to us but they refused. They promised to resolve the problem in near future but the process dragged out without any final solution,” Jambul Abuladze said.
The banner nearby the disputed building in Mokhe village reads that the building is under construction. However, local muslims claim in fact full deconstruction of the building was planned and they protested it.
Orthodox population of the Mokhe village has completely different position. They told us the building has never been mosque before. It was club during the communist regime and they believe it must have general public function now too.
Tsiala Rekhviashvili, member of the orthodox parish in Mokhe: “Turkey ruled this region during 300 years. We were first Christians, who were resettled from Racha here. When we arrived, this building was semi-constructed. Neither orthodox nor muslim religious rituals have never taken place there. There are many ruins of churches in the neighborhood but none of them have stones on the façade; we wonder where did those stones go?! Most probably they were used for the construction of this building. The construction of this building started in 1920s but could not finish. Let them conduct expertise and everybody will get convinced that its construction never finished that means it could not be a mosque either. Let them set up a commission and estimate the truth. If it is constructed with church stones, the Patriarchate will take it and use. Nobody protects interests of christians here. Our families settled here in 1942 and construction of the orthodox church started only now in our village.”
Aleksi Kobiashvili: “Soon Turkish religious expansion will happen here. We will not have to wait long. Turkish side spends money here to reinforce local muslims. The religion has become part of politics. Money flows from Turkey but I cannot prove it; I have no evidence. The state and security service shall find out it. They need at least 100 or 200 thousand lari to construct and arrange mosque here. Now divide 200 000 lari into 30 families and you will receive huge portion of money for each family. Do you believe that 30 families of one village could afford to collect such a huge sum?”
Paata Bliadze: “This building was constructed with the church stones. Besides that, it is common space. We did not have church and monastery but respected their interests and did not request the patriarchate or the government to give this building to us. Muslims usually asked us to jointly roof the building; they already had a mosque here and according to their statements, they could not have two mosques in one village. Muslims just wanted to roof it to protect the building from completely ruin. Furthermore, they said, if it was constructed with church stones, it would be better to keep the stones clean under roof. However, lately they changed their position and requested to make the building into mosque. When our grandparents arrived here, the building was in the same semi-ruined condition as now. Muslim Meskhs used it as warehouse and the building was roofed to protect corns from rain. No religious services have ever been conducted in it. It was club during soviet time. Both muslim and christian people went there to dance and listen to concert. Let them construct the mosque somewhere else; we are not against it.”
According to Nino Tsagareishvili, coordinator of project “Promoting Freedom of Religion in Georgia” of Human Rights Center, in comments made by part of the local population, there are signs of hate speech against Muslim community, expressed in derogatory terms and discriminatory statements.
Muslims state they will never deconstruct church and use its stones for the construction of the mosque; it contradicts the Shariat Law.
Lawyer Tamta Mikeladze of the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center said the building is constructed like a mosque and it is not important what stones it was built with. “We arrived at the place and saw that the building has staircase leading to the minaret. The place, where Mola conducts the ritual, is also marked – it is constructed in the direction of Meka. There is a muslim cemetery in the building yard. You will detect the mosque construction of the building at a very first sight. However, of course, the final conclusion must be made by experts. I think the building must be conserved and returned to its historical owner,” Tamta Mikeladze said.
Commission
Special commission was set up with the initiative of the State Agency for Religious Issues, which shall decide the fate of disputed building in Mokhe. Head of the Agency Zaza Vashakmadze will lead the commission too. The commission will have 11 members – three from muslim community, three –from the Georgian Patriarchate, two – from the Agency for Culture Heritage Protection, one from Adigeni district administration, one from Samtskhe-Javakheti regional administration and one from the Agency for Religious Issues. The first meeting of the commission was held on December 2.
Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili positively evaluated the establishment of the commission: “It is important that they accepted our recommendation and established a special commission. I believe the local government should not make decision individually. All parties must be involved in the commission work, including the representatives of the muslim community. The commission should make the decision, which will meet the law requirements and will be acceptable for every citizen.”
Head of the Union of Georgian Muslims Tariel Nakaidze said the commission was established in a wrong format. He thinks it is significant that the state carries out correct policy and changes its position towards religious minorities. “I think the commission format is not correct. It will further increase the escalation and tense the situation. This fact will repeatedly put our country in an awkward position before the international society.”
According to Tariel Nakaidze, the problem is that officials, who systematically participated in the incidents, were promoted on the positions in local authority and now they have power to decide the fate of the disputed building in Mokhe. One of similar persons is Akaki Machutadze, current governor of Samtskhe-Javakheti region.
Human Rights Center contacted Akaki Machutadze. He said he raised the issue of his membership in the commission at the very first session but muslims did not protest it. “Mamuka Vashakmadze, Beglar Kamashadze and Adam Shantadze participated in the meeting. I addressed to them during the meeting and asked if they had any questions about my membership, they could declare mistrust to me. But, they said they had nothing against my position and my personality,” Akaki Machutadze said.
Mufti of Georgian Muslims Beglar Kamashadze confirmed that Akaki Machutadze really raised the issue of his membership during the meeting but nobody opposed it. “We hope the commission will fairly resolve the problem. We agreed to be members of the commission with that hope. We will try to be impartial and promote building of the strong state. We will try to resolve problems between the state and people with different religions and avoid possible destabilization in our country,” Beglar Kamashadze said.
The commission will hold next meeting on December 27.
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