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Mosque damaged in 2007 and investigation launched in 2014

December 30, 2014
 
Natia Gogolashvili

“On the place, we found the mosque destroyed. The roof was removed and ceiling damaged; two rows of the carved stones removed. The stones above and on both sides of the main entrance were also removed. When you enter the mosque, you immediately guess that in the past the village used it as a cattle and pig shed,” it is an extract from the explanation letter of Tariel Nakaidze, Chairman of Georgian Muslim Union, where he described the incident that occurred in Plate village, Adigeni district in 2007.

The case is about alleged premeditated damage of the mosque in Plate village. According to Nakaidze, the bishop of Zarzma Monastery and his parish members destroyed the mosque and took its stones for the construction in the territory of the monastery.

Plate village is within Adigeni municipality and is several kilometers away from the villages of Tchela and Mokhe, two hot sites of religious controversy in the municipality. The mosque in the Plate village was constructed in 1920s by Muslim Meskhs, who were resettled to the Middle East during Stalin regime in 1944. Instead, families from Racha Region were settled in their houses. Nowadays, about 7 Muslim families live in the village resettled from Adjara.

During the incident in Plate, Tariel Nakaidze was foreign affairs representative of the Muslim Department of Western Georgia. In 2007 he arrived in Plate to study the situation on the place. “According to my information, the investigation into the Plate incident started in 2007. However, the problem was that some local Muslims, who were questioned, denied the information about the incident. It became one of the grounds for the law enforcement bodies to drop the investigation,” Tariel Nakaidze said.

“For a long time, Muslims living in Adjara Autonomous Republic and muslim eco-migrant refrained from making their problems public but since 2007, when one part of the Zarzma Monastery parish and several local inhabitants started deconstruction of the non-functioning mosque in Plate for the construction of a chapel in the territory of Zarzma Monastery, both eco-migrant muslims and those living in Adjara started complaining about their problems loudly,” the 2008 Report of the Public Defender reads.

Representatives of the Public Defender’s Office also visited the Plate village to study the situation. Head of Tolerance Center under auspice of the Public Defender’s Office Beka Mindiashvili said it is years-long problem that resulted from Islam-phobic attitude of the representatives of the Orthodox Church. 

Beka Mindiashvili, head of the Tolerance Center under auspice of the Public Defender’s Office: “Part of the Orthodox Georgian people believe mosques must not function in the territory of Christian Georgia and ethnic Georgian must necessarily be only orthodox. As a result of this approach, Islam-phobia and aggression originated that finally result into verbal assaults and extremist behaviors. The incident of Plate village was one of those examples, when parish of the Zarzma Monastery voluntarily started deconstruction of the mosque to construct monastery cell with its stones. I and my colleagues personally saw those stones. My colleague talked with one of the clergymen of the monastery who confirmed that they had taken the stones from the mosque to use them for the construction. As a result of our petitions, the process stopped however, regardless the Public Defender’s request to investigate the fact, it did not start. Some procedures were conducted but the process did not continue. It is necessary that government and law enforcement bodies had immediate and adequate reaction on similar facts. On the other hand, the church must change its attitude towards other religions and stop appeals for the persecution of religious minorities.”

Leader of the Tchela Mosque Jambul Abuladze said they refrained from re-exposing the Plate issue not to escalate conflict between local Muslim and Orthodox population. “As documents show, the Zarzma Monastery Bishop Nikoloz Getsadze voluntarily tried to partly destroy the historical mosque. We kept silence about this fact for years not to escalate the situation but now we are already fed up. Muslim community decided it is useless to keep silence. Nikoloz Getsadze is dangerous person. He tries to instill controversy between religions. We applied to Human Rights Center for legal aid in this case,” said Jambul Abuladze.

On December 17, 2014 Human Rights Center petitioned to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and requested investigation into the alleged premeditated damage of the historical mosque in Plate village. The organization requested to study the fact and punish perpetrators under the law. However, Chief Prosecutor’s Office forwarded the case to the Adigeni district police department for investigation.

“Human Rights Center got interested in the issue of Plate mosque because religious controversy in the surrounding villages Tchela and Mokhe started after the damage of that particular mosque. Impunity, hushing up the facts and keeping blind eyes on similar facts resulted into escalation of religious extremism in several representatives of the Orthodox Church in the region,” executive director of Human Rights Center Aleko Tskitishvili said and added: “We met Orthodox people in Tchela, Mokhe and Plate, who claimed similar things: “mosques have never been in those villages;”  “ Turkish Special Forces plan to open mosques there” and it increases “threat of Turkish expansion in the region.” They also say that “ethnic Georgian must be only orthodox.” Unfortunately, this ideology is preached by some clergymen of the Orthodox Church. However, the problem is acute not only because of the church but because of the inactivity of the state – furthermore, for the negative conduct of the state.

According to our information, in 2007, when investigation started into the alleged damage of the Plate mosque, that time district governor Chilingarashvili, who is now MP, appealed to the leader of the Zarzma Monastery and requested to return the stones back to the mosque because the building was property of the district administration. The bishop did not pay attention to the district governor’s request. Police hushed up the crime because trace led towards the Zarzma Monastery and if continued they would have opposed the church. As a result, signs of religious controversy appeared in Tchela and Mokhe and senior officials of the police, district and regional administrations were parties in this controversy. In fact, they directly started persecution against Muslim people.”

After Human Rights Center appealed to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, the case was forwarded to the Adigeni district police department. Deputy executive director of Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani said on December 23, investigator Besik Apraimashvili at Adigeni police office called her on the phone and requested her to arrive in Adigeni police office to be interrogated as a witness in the case about the mosque in Plate village. He said if she had not appeared to the interrogation timely, they would use force to bring her to the police office. 

“Since Human Rights Center got suspicious about the ongoing process into the case, on December 24, I arrived at Adigeni district police together with the executive director of the organization. At the police office, I was interrogated through blatant violation of the procedural law. Namely, during interrogation process investigator Besik Apraimashvili often contacted unidentified persons on the phone (supposedly they were senior officers) and received instructions from them how to get desirable testimony from the lawyer. The interrogation lasted more than three hours. Human Rights Center evaluates the interrogation of the human rights defender as a witness as alarming fact. The lawyers of the organization often address to the prosecutor’s office with the request to launch investigation into different cases but we are never questioned as witnesses.  The behavior of the investigator at Adigeni district police demonstrates a threat that investigative bodies might start interrogation of human rights defenders as witnesses in the cases they monitor,” Tamar Avaliani said.

On December 25th, Imam of Tchela village mosque, Jambul Abuladze and Samtskhe-Javakheti region Mufti Mamuka Vashakmadze were questioned in Adigeni district police office as witnesses. Lawyer Nestan Londaridze of Human Rights Center attended their interrogation as attorney; the interrogation lasted 6 hours.

Leaders of the Muslim community confirmed in their testimonies that they requested investigation into the case of the deconstructed Plate mosque. “I answered all their questions. I shared all information I had with them. They asked why we did not raise this issue before, whether I witnessed the deconstruction of the mosque and what I knew about it. Let us see how the investigation will progress,” Jambul Abuladze said.

Nowadays, the leader of Zarzma Monastery Father Nikoloz denies information about his connection with the deconstruction of the Plate mosque in his interviews with journalists. However, last summer, in his interview to the local newspaper Samkhretis Karibche, he justified the deconstruction of the mosque and confirmed this fact really happened but claimed that nobody intended to destroy functioning mosque there.  “People had requested to deconstruct the building, because its walls were falling because of the rain and stones might injure children. Besides that, nobody used the building as a mosque; pigs were there and the area was full of manure.”

Human Rights Center visited Plate village. As local Muslim and orthodox people say they did not know anything about deconstruction of the mosque and its stones. According to them, the wind removed the roof of the building. Part of orthodox people says the mosque was constructed with the stones of the orthodox church, which was located in the outskirts of the village in the past. 

Zhuzhuna Khmaladze (local Muslim): “I have been living in Plate since 1955. This building was a warehouse in the past. It did not have a roof for some time but later it was roofed. Afterwards, shop, club and library were functioning in it. Wind removed the roof and then it ruined. I do not know anything about stones. There is no mosque in the village. Is it necessary to have a mosque in every village? If we want to prey, we can go to neighboring village.”

Tamaz Mokhashvili (local orthodox): “We settled in Plate village in 1944. This building has never been a mosque. Muslims have never preyed there. In the beginning it was a warehouse and then a club and a library. The building has been in similar conditions for 15-20 years; the roof also damaged and collapsed. Do you know when this dispute started? This building was constructed with the monastery stones. The ancient monastery of the village is ruined. If this building was not constructed with the stones of that monastery, where did the monastery stones disappear then?! We, local orthodox and muslim people, have very good relation. Somebody wants to damage our relations.”

Rezo Kakhadze (local muslim): “I did not see anybody destroying the mosque. I did not see who took the stones. Police officers came, questioned us but we do not know anything. This building has been in poor conditions for years and is ruining.”

Roman Gagnidze (local orthodox): “Wind destroyed the roof. It is ruining eventually. It is dangerous for local population because stones are falling from it. Children play there and they might be hit with stones. Then they come and claim it is a mosque. How can they prove it?!”

Human Rights Center took photos of the historical building in the village. The date of construction is written above the back entrance of the building and it says 1927. The building looks like a mosque and resembles the disputed building from Mokhe village, which is constructed with similar stones and architecture. 

“Supposedly, it is culture heritage of Muslim Meskhs; initially Stalin regime tried to eliminate its trace, when local Meskhs were resettled to the Middle East but now religious extremists threat it. As representatives of the Muslim community say, there are a lot similar mosques in the region and all of them are functionless. During soviet time, when churches were also destroyed or used as warehouses and village clubs, the same happened with mosques. According to the Concordat between the State and the Orthodox Church, the buildings of the church were returned to its historical owner. Muslims, who also were victims of the soviet totalitarian regime, have right to get their historical mosques back. In the Plate and other villages, where number of muslim people is not high, locals do not request to operate mosques but to protect historical buildings, that is responsibility of the state. Unfortunately, the state is against assigning the mosques to its owners and does not take care of the buildings either,” Aleko Tskitishvili said. 

It is noteworthy that there is no conflict between orthodox and muslim communities in Plate village; they have very good relation but all of them admit somebody tries to instill hatred between them. Meanwhile, the historical mosque is in poor conditions and it will soon collapse because of inattention. 

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