Photo: Dato Parulava/OC Media.
Residents of two villages in southern Georgia are suing the government for transferring land they have used for decades to the Georgian Orthodox Church. They claim the lands are vital for them to sustain their families, but local church officials — who plan to build a monastery in the predominantly Muslim area — don’t share their concerns. [Read more…]
Head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II. (Mari Nikuradze / OC Media)
With persistent and growing talk of ‘polarisation’ in Georgia, CRRC-Georgia examines the actors, issues, and institutions that people think divide society. [Read more…]
(OC Media)
Violent right-wing extremism is on the rise in Georgia. And recent events, including the Tbilisi City Court denying a ‘hate motive’ in the murder of Vitali Safarov, shows that the government is not willing to take serious steps to stop it. [Read more…]
Meeting of the Holy Synod (patriarchate.ge)
The Georgian Orthodox Church has come out against ‘the legalisation’ of drugs in Georgia, saying it is considering denying religious rituals to Orthodox Christians who die of an overdose. In a meeting of the Holy Synod, the Church’s ruling body, they called for harsh sentences for drug dealers, while also advocating treatment for users. [Read more…]
Tbilisi City Council (tbsakrebulo.gov.ge)
Tbilisi City Council has transferred two plots of land in Tbilisi to the Georgian Orthodox Church. A decision to give away more than 44 additional hectares is pending. [Read more…]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili votes in parliamentary election (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
A recent poll published by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and CRRC Georgia, a Caucasus-based think tank, shows growing disillusionment among Georgians in their government institutions and politicians. Although 69% of those polled continue to believe that the country will be better for future generations, opinion on the nation’s current direction remains largely uncertain. [Read more…]
Petre Tsaava (http://exclusivenews.ge)
Amidst the continuing controversy surrounding the ‘poison plot’ in Georgia’s Orthodox Church, the Church's highest governing body, the Holy Synod of Bishops, fired the head of the Patriarchate’s television station, Metropolitan Petre Tsaava on 9 March. Tsaava will remain as head of Chkondidi Eparchy in Western Georgia. [Read more…]
A Georgian Orthodox priest, Giorgi Mamaladze, was arrested on 10 February under suspicion of planning the murder of a ‘high ranking cleric’. [Read more…]
