PATRIARCH
ILIA II
SENDS PROTEST TO PATRIARCH KIRILL AGAINST NEW INTRUSION BY
R.P.Ts. ON TERRITORY
OF GEORGIAN CHURCH
Catholicos-Patriarch
of
all-Georgia Ilia II appealed to RPTsMP Patriarch Kirill because
of a new
intrusion by the Moscow patriarchate onto territory of the
Georgian church. As
Novosti-Gruziia reported on 17 November, Ilia II's appeal was
published on the
patriarchate's website.
Yesterday
the famous
physician, the president of the Georgian Association of
Orthopedic Surgeons,
Vazha Gaprindashvili, who lives in Tbilisi, was detained near
the village of
Orchosani in the Tskhinvali region, which is actually controlled
by the Russian
Federeation. Vazha Gaprindashvili was sentenced to two months of
preliminary
confinement on a charge of transgressing "state boundaries."
This
incident also was mentioned by the head of the Georgian
patriarchate.
"It is
with pain
in our heart that we have watched how Russia has transgressed
the boundaries in
the Tskhinvali region and kidnaps people from the border zone,
which has a
permanent character," the message says. "This time everybody is
concerned because of the detention of the famous physician Vazhi
Gaprindashvili
in a Tskhinvali cell. Such a situation evokes in our society
great and
justified discontent and protest."
In the
appeal it is
also noted that it is unacceptable to send clergymen of the
RPTsMP to Russian
military units located in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region
without permission
of the Georgian church, since this exacerbates the situation.
"Against
this
background, an extremely negative impression is created by
reports that you
wish to send graduates of ecclesiastical schools to help army
commanders in
Russian military units located in Abkhazia, Tskhinvali region,
Kyrgyzstan, and
the Arctic. The Russian church has always recognized and does
recognize the
jurisdiction of the Georgian church both in Abkhazia and in the
Tskhinvali
region, and therefore we do not understand such statements and
they put us all
in a difficult situation," Ilia II notes.
In
conclusion, he
expresses the hope that the head of the RPTsMP "as much as
possible will undertake
measures for the normalization of relations between our states,
peoples, and
churches. (tr. by PDS, posted 18 November 2019)
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