Epress.am News from Armenia
The incident between Armenians and Georgians that occurred on July 19 at the Armenian Holy Echmiadzin Church in Tbilisi contained no ethnic motives and erupted from a petty quarrel; however, after statements by some members of Georgia's Armenian community, it acquired a tone of inter-ethnic conflict, said head of the Center for Political and Legal Studies Johnny Melikyan at a discussion at the Media Center in Yerevan. According to him, the anti-Armenian sentiment in Georgia over the past 20 years is not new, and this factor is used from time to time by some political figures, adopting a policy of information, but when the need subsides, the anti-Armenian sentiment in Georgian news media also subsides.
Georgian Strategic Research Center Senior Fellow Giorgi Gvimradze, in turn, said that such domestic clashes often acquire overtones of ethnic conflict. He believes it's important to determine not the causes of the incident but the extent there are reasons to worry about the situation in Georgia. According to him, the issue refers to not only Armenians, but also all ethnic minorities, since there are radical Georgians who are intolerant of both Armenians and Muslims.
Another participant in today's discussion, Head of the Political Sciences Department at the Caucasus Institute Sergey Minasyan, was convinced that the incident was an accident but acquired ethnic overtones in the comments and interpretations made after. In his opinion, in a country like Georgia, where there are many ethnic minorities and a conflict in Abkhazia, such a situation, in some sense, is even natural. He considered the politicizing of such incidents, however, unacceptable.
Civil Contract board member Arsen Kharatyan, in turn, added that the Georgian authorities can prevent such a situation. In Kharatyan's words, all large-scale events by Armenians in Tbilisi are held only in the Holy Echmiadzin Church, as the Armenian theater and St. Gregory Church are being renovated. Kharatyan believes the concern of residents living next to the church is natural, when thousands of people gather at the church and it's not possible to walk near the area. According to him, if Tbilisi City Hall would accelerate the renovation work on the theatre and second church, it would be possible to avoid such incidents.
Recall, the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia states that at around 5 pm on July 19 there was an attack on Armenian clergymen and Diocese staff committed on grounds of ‘ethnic and religious hatred’; meanwhile, Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs claims there were no ethnic motives behind the incident.
In a statement issued on July 20, the Georgian Diocese said that in the afternoon of July 19 a Georgian woman had parked her car near the church gates and was unable to get out, as other cars were blocking her exit, which resulted in an altercation between Armenians and Georgians.