State Department on Armenian church collapsed in Georgia
14/9/2011
Georgian government respected religious freedom in law and in practice, says U.S. State Department’s report on religious freedom.
The report contains information about the Armenian church collapsed in Tbilisi in November 2009.
“The church was used as a warehouse during the Soviet era. The church did not reopen after the country’s independence, when title to the property passed to the Ministry of Culture. The AAC [Armenian Apostolic Church] released a statement accusing the government and the GOC [Georgian Orthodox Church] of failing to preserve Armenian holy sites. The Tbilisi municipality began cleaning up the site during the previous reporting period.
On July 26, the Ministry of Culture began preparatory explorations of the site and dedicated 47,259 lari ($26,700) to restoration planning. However, the AAC reported that no further action was taken on the church’s restoration by year’s end,” the report reads.
