DIVERTING ATTENTION OR POLITICAL MYOPIA?

In the middle of May came the surprise announcement of the establishment of a non-governmental organization (NGO) - the Georgian Muslims Board, headed by Mufti Jamal Bagshadze. This organization officially set as its objective control over the activities of the country's Islamic communities and mosques, whereas these powers, which no-one has as yet revoked, belong to the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus, with its centre in Baku under the leadership of Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji Allahsukur Pasazada. As one might expect, this led to a negative reaction by the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus. Pasazada saw the creation of the Georgian Muslims Board as a political act aimed at cutting off the Georgian Muslims from their brothers in Azerbaijan. At the same time, he pointed to the fact that for some reason this affected only Muslims, although the Armenian Grigorians and Catholics living in Georgia also have centres of control outside Georgia.

There was sharp reaction, too, from a spokesman for the Spiritual Board of Muslims in Georgia, Ali Aliyev. He drew attention to the fact there is not a single Azerbaijani in the leadership of the Georgian Muslims Board, despite the fact that the majority of the Muslims living in Georgia are Azerbaijani, whereas the other (smaller) section consists mainly of Adjarians, as well as Abkhazians, Chechens and other Muslims. It is strange that the over half-a-million Azerbaijani diaspora in Georgia have only secondary roles in the new-fangled organization. Moreover, Aliyev claims, none of the founders of the GMB is a religious figure or has the relevant education. They are all secular figures and some of them are employed in state posts.

Aliyev says there is nothing to suggest that the Georgian government is behind this organization: "The Georgian government and President Mikheil Saakashvili himself are constantly declaring their friendship with Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people, and so we do not believe that the Georgian state had anything to do with the creation of this committee. I hope this question will be resolved very soon, because presidents and spiritual leaders of other states have always found a solution to problems."

In connection with this, Hidayat Orucov, the chairman of the Azerbaijani state committee for work with religious structures, received Archbishop Arkadi Khachidze, the special representative of the Georgian patriarch and bishop of Khornabuji and Hereti eparchies, and Georgian ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Azerbaijan, Teymuraz Sharashenidze. The head of the state committee noted that two Georgian Orthodox religious communities had been registered in Azerbaijan's Qax District and they were currently operating freely. Unlike the Georgians in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijanis in Georgia have serious problems in the religious sphere, and the recently created GMB is causing great concern among Georgia's Azerbaijanis. Orucov also noted the Georgian Azerbaijanis' concern over the erection of crosses in their villages: "I discussed this matter back in 2009 with Patriarch Ilia II, senior Georgian officials and the governor of Kvemo-Kartli Province, David Kirkitadze, during his visit to Azerbaijan. But, unfortunately, despite promises to resolve these problems, not a single step has been taken in this direction." At the same time, the Azerbaijani side is certain that the establishment of the GMB will not harm neighbourly relations between the two countries.

Elene Tevdoradze, Georgian deputy state minister for questions of reintegration, said that she found out about this organization only from the media.

Husein Yusubov, deputy governor of Kvemo-Kartli (Eastern Georgia) and one of the founders of the GMB, tries to bring clarity to the situation: "The purpose of this new public organization is to act as a bridge between representatives of the country's Muslim community and the Georgian government, and it does not interfere in any way with the work of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus. This organization is not an alternative to the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus and will not interfere in its activities. I myself and other members of NGOs who are working in state structures joined this organization as Muslims and as believers, and not as bureaucrats. There is no and will not be any interference in the work of NGOs from the state…The organization will be run on public donations. Not a single mosque has been registered or renovated on Georgian territory. There are people who wish to take part in this cause."

Without doubting the good intentions of the founders of the GMB, it still has to be said that there was no urgent need to set up a duplicate religious structure. Would it not have been easier to achieve its aims with the support of such a well-established and influential regional structure as the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Caucasus than with the cooperation of a new local organization counting on future donations? Much as one may regret it, it would seem that certain political forces are trying to drive a wedge in the ranks of the Georgian Muslims whose numbers, according to official statistics, amount to over 10 per cent of the country's overall population. In the light of recent events within the framework of Armenian-Georgian mutual relations, the words of Sheikh ul-Islam Pasazada about an Armenian connection in this matter have a solid foundation. And those people, about whose good intentions Yusubov was referring, should first and foremost consider the danger that lies in wait for Georgia from this direction. 

The Armenians, who are accustomed to taking advantage of others and getting others to do their dirty work for them, are trying to drag more and more "sympathizers" into the network of their schemes. It was not by chance that the Georgian eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC), inspired by the thaw in Armenian-Georgian relations, decided to make an offer to Georgia which, it believed, Tbilisi could not refuse. On 18 April the AAC issued a statement calling on the Georgian leadership to "recognize and to condemn the genocide against the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire in 1915". The statement expresses the hope that the Georgian parliament and government would very soon recognize and condemn the genocide of the Armenians, thereby contributing to the mission for the prevention of such atrocities.

Yes, even Paul Joseph Goebbels himself cannot match that, as they say. The call comes from the AAC which lays claim to 650 churches (allegedly Armenian) in Georgia which are located in at least 40 districts of the country. It is relevant here to share the "ingenious" fabrications of the "colourful" representative of Holy Echmiadzin (the chief ideologist, organizer and coordinator of all the convoluted plans and actions of the Armenians), the Armenian bishop of Georgia, Ter Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, which he made during a visit to the Armenian populated region of Javakheti: "The AAC is having problems in this territory. No religious minorities have been registered in Georgia. For this reason the main problem is that the status of the church has not been defined. Another problem is the non-return of Tbilisi's St Norashen and Akhalkalak's St Nshan churches to the AAC. The day will come when these churches and Javakheti will be ours. For the time being we are satisfied with the current situation, given today's realities. Our people's main problem today is to achieve international recognition of the independence of Nagornyy Karabakh."

Comment is hardly necessary, one would think, as things could not be clearer. But during his recent visit to Uruguay Garegin II, catholicos of all Armenians, devoted the main part of his speech at a meeting with the diaspora to the "problems" of the Armenians of Javakheti, noting that he would soon be leaving for Georgia to study the problem of the Armenians at first hand.

As far as the "genocide" is concerned, it remains to be hoped that the founders of the GMB non-governmental organization will find the will to demand that the AAC, the Armenian authorities and the Armenian community respond to Bondo Arveladze, author of the book "The I. Bagramyan Armenian Battalion and the Ethnic Cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia", which was published in April 2007. The book contains a number of facts testifying to the participation of the Armenian Bagramyan battalion, which was set up by Abkhazian separatists, in the annihilation of the Georgians. Bagramyan's detachment took active part in the provocative war of 1992-93 against the Georgians, and also in the ethic cleansing and genocide of the Georgians, for which the Armenians have not only failed to apologize to the Georgians but, on the contrary, are offering various excuses. Bondo Arveladze claims that he has approached Armenian spiritual and secular leaders, including Garegin II, catholicos of all Armenians, and the then president, Robert Kocharyan, on a number of occasions requesting an apology for the actions of the Armenians in Abkhazia, because the Bagramyan battalion was noted for its brutality against the Georgians, but so far has not had a reply.

The fact that neither the spiritual leader of the Armenians nor the Armenian authorities wish to comment on these revelations is much as one would expect. What is strange is that all these criminal deeds have met with no response from the West, especially the US, which is Georgia's strategic ally. It is entirely possible that in this instance a golden calf in the shape of a financial sweetener from the Armenians is a secure lock on the tongues of politicians, MPs and officials of the leading countries of the world and the European structures. 

Otherwise, instead of discussing mythical "genocides" of a hundred years ago they would have engaged in a careful study of the criminal and terrorist activities of the Armenians who committed real genocide in various countries, and what's more, in our times. Back then barely three deputies of the Georgian parliament would have been in a hurry to state their intentions to raise the question of the recognition of the so-called "genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire" in Georgia's supreme legislative body.

Incidentally, when seen against the background of the Armenians' call to Georgia, which is bound to Azerbaijan and Turkey by strategic mutual relations, to recognize the "genocide of the Armenians", the establishment of the GMB cannot be perceived as a common-or-garden event. The founders of this organization should not lose sight of the fact that the Armenians, and first and foremost the AAC, which has unrivalled experience and skill in inciting inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts, are surely trying to take advantage of the misapprehension that has been created. This is what should mainly worry those who are really concerned about the interests of Muslims in Georgia and the true citizens of that country. But for the moment all this smacks of diverting attention or political myopia. This is probably the sort of thing that the great Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the all-time doyen of diplomacy and peoples, had in mind when he once warned: "This is worse than a crime, it's a mistake".