On March 27, 2018, a round table discussion dedicated to the issues of the Tandoyats St. Astvatsatsin church and the restitution of religious buildings of religious communities, held in the Conference Hall of the “Betsy’s” Hotel in Tbilisi.

The event was organized by the Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI) and Human rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC).

Representatives of Diplomatic corps and international organizations, leaders of religious communities, specialists from human rights NGOs, urban development experts were invited to the meeting.

Consultants of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia Artak Grabski and Harutyun Hayrapetyan were also present at the meeting.

The purpose of the round table discussion was to introduce the legal process of the Tandoyants church issue, results of the historical and architectural researches, as well as to discuss the problem of religious buildings which were confiscated from religious communities during the Soviet regime.

Opening the round table discussion, Mako Ghavtadze, member of the Board of the Tolerance and Diversity Institute, recorded the content of the issue of the Tandoyants St. Astvatsatsin church, the decision to transfer it to the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church and lack of evidence and arguments for that decision.

Tamta Mikeladze, Gvantsa Lomaia and Eto Gvritishvili, the lawyers of the abovementioned companies, were presented as lawyers of the court case of Tandoyants church. During the round table discussion they made speeches on issue, using broad, substantiated and factual data. The lawyers based on archival materials and the results of detailed researches, introduced to the attendees the Armenian origin of the Tandoyants church, presented the falsification of the legal part of the transferring of the church to the Georgian Patriarchate. The artist Natalia Chitishvili presented the historical and architectural appearance of the church through the slides as well as showed the actual location of the Georgian Holy Cross Seen church, presented by the Georgian Patriarchate. Art critic Nato Tsintsaradze assessed the works carried out at the ruins of the church and in the nearby area as a gross violation of the internationally recognized norms of the protection of monuments.

The Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan in his speech highlighted the necessity of requirement of religious communities to return their churches and religious buildings to their legal and historical owners. He also emphasized that requirement of the Armenian Diocese for six temples in Georgia (where numerous Armenian churches located) has been frozen for decades. The Candidate of Historical Sciences Arusyak Terchanyan presented the factual materials kept in the archives both in Armenia and in Georgia, which unequivocally proves that the Tandoyants St. Astvatsatsin church is an Armenian church.

Tatuli Todua, representative of the Office of the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia, in his speech underlined that the issue of the return of the Tandoyants church and the confiscated religious buildings are under the attention of the Public Defender. The Office of the Public Defender has thoroughly studied the issue of the Tandoyants church and has been instructed to provide appropriate recommendations for fair solutions.

During the round table discussion the issues of the absence of Restitution Law in Georgia, selective democracy and discrimination also were raised. Leader of the Administration of the Latin Catholic Apostolic Church of the Transcaucasia, His Grace Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, leader of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Markus Shokh, leader of the Evangelical-Baptist Church in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Merab Gaprindashvili, head of the Religious Organizations Council under the Office of the Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia, Beka Mindiashvili made speeches on these issues, presenting concrete examples. It was also mentioned the necessity of partial compensation for religious communities, which religious buildings were confiscated during the Soviet era, as well as the necessity to expand the jurisdiction of the State Agency for Religious Issues of Georgia.

After an exchange of opinions in the question and answer format, the round table discussion summed up its work.

The event was organized by the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with the support of the Project “Promotion Rule of Law in Georgia” (PROLoG), implemented by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI).