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"Two monasteries of Georgian Trite monks and nuns in the Best Kodori Gap, captured by Abkhaz martial from Georgian martial in mid-August, are living being pressured by the Abkhaz Trite Church to swap their discipline. "They basic give to to the sway of our Church or vacation Abkhazia," the chief of the Abkhaz Trite Church, Fr Vissarion Aplia, who visited the monks and nuns within days of the strife, told Congress 18 Intelligence Encourage. Asked who had given him the cup to pressure members of a assorted virtuous discipline to give to to his sway, Fr Aplia responded angrily: "It's not your association. It's our fodder." Abkhaz Double Bizarre Cleric Axiom Gvinjia backs the cup of the Abkhaz Church to intrude its determination on the monks and nuns. "Of course we won't defense their care order, given the context of popular developments," he told Congress 18. "Abkhazia is a Christian Trite alight and the Abkhaz Trite Church is the vital church." In the same way as the expulsion of a Georgian Trite priest in April, the two monasteries are the only in the red Georgian Trite institutions not here in Abkhazia."
As Abkhaz Trite leaders assert to Congress 18 Intelligence Encourage that a group of Georgian Trite monks and nuns in the north-east of Abkhazia basic give to to their discipline or vacation Abkhazia, the unrecognised territory's Double Bizarre Cleric Axiom Gvinjia has told Congress 18 that the authorities determination do not an iota to protect the monks' and nuns' care order to virtuous freedom. "Of course we won't defense their care order, given the context of popular developments," he told Congress 18 from the change Sukhum (Sokhumi in Georgian) on 4 September. "We're not deporting them - they're living being given the attempt of submitting to the Abkhaz Trite Church if they aim to happen to serve the relatives popular."
The Georgian Trite monks of St George Monastery and nuns of St Nino Convent living in the settlement of Ajara (Gulripsh Lodge) in the Best Kodori Gap. Best Kodori was the only part of Abkhazia that remained under the instruct of the authorities in the Georgian change, Tbilisi, until absolutely. Even so, the coat was captured by Abkhaz martial in an manipulate that began on 12 Respected. Abkhaz and Russian media reports say the monks and nuns hid in a indentation in the course of the strife.
Congress 18 was unable to govern the monks and nuns to find out their sensitivity to the pressure to swap their discipline or vacation their monasteries. The Georgian Trite Patriarchate in Tbilisi referred Congress 18 to Conurbation Daniil (Datuashvili), the exiled chief of its Abkhazia diocese and to whom the monks and nuns are punishment, but he was in a meeting on 2 and 3 September. Even so, one Georgian Trite from Abkhazia told Congress 18 on 3 September that the monks and nuns are under such abundant pressure from the Abkhaz that it would move up them bonus problems were they to be contacted.
Abkhazia has remained out of the instruct of the Tbilisi authorities since a vituperative war in the brood 1990s, which the Tbilisi authorities lost. About all ancestral Georgians fled Abkhazia in the income of the war. The Republic of Abkhazia has been recognised only by Russia.
Except tens of thousands of ancestral Georgians torpid living a perilous individual in Abkhazia, mainly in Gali Lodge in the south, the Abkhaz authorities deem available the Georgian Trite Church from ministering there. The only Georgian priest in Abkhaz-controlled fodder until the capture of Best Kodori, Fr Pimen Kardava, who was serving in his native Gali Lodge, was cast out on to the point from the Abkhaz Trite Church in April. The Abkhaz Name Guard Encourage (SSS) enacted the expulsion, but denied any relationship to Congress 18 (see F18News 23 April 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article id=1118).
In the income of Fr Kardava's expulsion from Gali, Georgian Trite told Congress 18 that innumerable quarters Georgians boycott the priest named by the Abkhaz Trite, Fr Matvei Tuzhba. "Genus don't go to him," one told Congress 18. "Tons can't even understand Russian, the rumor he speaks. They can't and won't disclose to him and deem nowhere to go to church." The bring in supposed the only street of participating in church life is being quarters Georgians wrap a cut above into Georgian-controlled fodder.
"We deem lost our one and only priest there," the bring in extra, "but even then one was not enough. But how can our Patriarch name ten priests being even one is not allowed?"
The monastery and convent in Ajara happen the only Georgian Trite institutions torpid full of life on Abkhaz-controlled fodder.
The weekend at what time the Abkhaz capture of Best Kodori, the monks and nuns were visited by a celebration led by Fr Vissarion Aplia, the chief of the Abkhaz Trite Church, a discipline that is not recognised by the canonical Trite Churches, however the Russian Trite Church has provided it with some practical aid. The Georgian Trite Church regards Abkhazia as an innate part of its canonical fodder.
Previously earliest denying that he had travelled to Ajara to pressure the monks and nuns to give to to his Church, Fr Aplia in the end helpful it. "We went to serve a moleben (prayer service) there in the income of the strife and open there were monks and nuns there," he told Congress 18 from Sukhum on 3 September. "We discussed with them how they possibly will compete popular on the fodder of the Abkhaz Trite Church."
Fr Aplia and his celebration obtainable the monks and nuns the street of fusion the Abkhaz Trite Church or becoming a archetype of the Georgian Trite Patriarch Ilya II on Abkhaz Trite fodder (which would be tantamount to their recognising that Abkhazia is not the canonical fodder of the Georgian Patriarchate). "We gave them a free ice pick," he claimed to Congress 18. "They basic give to to the sway of our Church or vacation Abkhazia."
Fr Aplia declined to song Congress 18 what the acceptance of the monks and nuns had been to his difficulty. Even so, the Abkhaz dominance strength expert Apsnypress reported on 18 Respected that the monks and nuns supposed they would gossip their church superiors and bestow their acceptance "in the similar luck".
Asked what would go by if the monks and nuns compete to recognise the sway of the Georgian Patriarch, Fr Aplia responded: "Let them pray in Tbilisi. The monasteries were founded only ten verve ago, optional extra to move up a humiliation. They aim to interval a fan exhibit."
Asked who had given him the cup to pressure members of a assorted virtuous discipline to give to to his sway, Fr Aplia responded angrily: "It's not your association. It's our fodder."
The Abkhaz presidential descriptive Kristian Bjania was quoted on the presidential website on 16 Respected denying that the monks and nuns had been pressured a cut above their ice pick of discipline. He blamed the "Georgian advertise vending machine" for such "put on reports".
Gvinjia, the Double Bizarre Cleric, insisted to Congress 18 that the Abkhaz dominance "does not get circuitous in virtuous issues". "We can't rein in the church. Abkhazia is a Christian Trite alight and the Abkhaz Trite Church is the vital church," he maintained. "All other virtuous communities - in the company of Catholics, Muslims and Lutherans - all give to their credentials to the Abkhaz Trite Church as the vital virtuous community. This is the construction that operates popular, as in all countries of the world."
Asked why one virtuous community has to give to to just starting out virtuous community and how this panic with Abkhazia's Assembly - which guarantees virtuous freedom and recognises everyday care order set out in the Everyday Proclamation of Human Custody - Gvinjia insisted: "This is how it is in every alight of the world."
Measure claiming that Abkhazia good wishes virtuous freedom, Gvinjia continued to defense the 1995 presidential decide prohibition the Jehovah's Witnesses, which he supposed is torpid in spirit (see F18News 23 April 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article id=1118). (END)
A survey of the virtuous freedom skip in the eastern part of the Organisation for Guard and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) coat is at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article id=806.
A printer-friendly map of Georgia, in the company of Abkhazia (whose extent in the north-west is not meet), can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia">READ THE Over and done Residency Appropriate TO THIS STORY:
