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Agenda, Georgia
Jan 18 2015
UNESCO to decide fate of 450 churches in Georgia
Armenia has applied to UNESCO to recognise hundreds of churches
located in Georgia as Armenian, Russian media reports.
The Armenian side asked for 450 churches in Georgia to be recognised
as Armenian, a Russian news agency said based on "a reliable source"
in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
Www.newsru.com reported Baku did not believe this action from Armenia
was "unexpected".
Representative of the Azerbaijani President's Administration Paud
Akhundov was quoted as saying "caprices" of the Armenian side were a
result of many centuries of "falsification" by Armenian historians.
Meanwhile, the move was assessed in Tbilisi too. Georgian officials
believed UNESCO was the body to give recommendations as to how to
preserve a historical building but it was not the right agency to
decide whom the building belonged to.
Georgia's Minister of Culture Mikheil Giorgadze said the Culture
Ministry also was not the right agency to decide a religious belonging
of a site.
"It's not a Culture Ministry's competence to decide religious
belonging. We see all of these churches as historical monuments and we
take care of them regardless of which religion they belong to,"
Giorgadze said.
Nikoloz Antidze, head of Georgia's National Agency for Cultural
Heritage Preservation, believed this was a "very sensitive issue" and
thorough research needed to happen before any decision was made.
http://agenda.ge/news/28232/eng
Jan 18 2015
UNESCO to decide fate of 450 churches in Georgia
Armenia has applied to UNESCO to recognise hundreds of churches
located in Georgia as Armenian, Russian media reports.
The Armenian side asked for 450 churches in Georgia to be recognised
as Armenian, a Russian news agency said based on "a reliable source"
in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.
Www.newsru.com reported Baku did not believe this action from Armenia
was "unexpected".
Representative of the Azerbaijani President's Administration Paud
Akhundov was quoted as saying "caprices" of the Armenian side were a
result of many centuries of "falsification" by Armenian historians.
Meanwhile, the move was assessed in Tbilisi too. Georgian officials
believed UNESCO was the body to give recommendations as to how to
preserve a historical building but it was not the right agency to
decide whom the building belonged to.
Georgia's Minister of Culture Mikheil Giorgadze said the Culture
Ministry also was not the right agency to decide a religious belonging
of a site.
"It's not a Culture Ministry's competence to decide religious
belonging. We see all of these churches as historical monuments and we
take care of them regardless of which religion they belong to,"
Giorgadze said.
Nikoloz Antidze, head of Georgia's National Agency for Cultural
Heritage Preservation, believed this was a "very sensitive issue" and
thorough research needed to happen before any decision was made.
http://agenda.ge/news/28232/eng