Roof of St. Minas Armenian Church collapses in Georgian capital

PanARMENIAN.Net - The roof of the Armenian Church of St. Minas collapsed in Tbilisi over lack of repair on Sept 19, an expert at the agency of cultural heritage of Georgia Gia Sosanidze told Civilnet.

The St. Minas Church, built in 1790 in Tbilisi’s Armenian Havlabar district was in poor condition. Inside the half-dilapidated church almost nothing reminded of its former magnificent self. The residents of the neighboring houses were using the church as a storage area.

“The territory is registered as part of a property of one of the residents and the repair is impossible to initiate before legal issues are settled,” Soskanidze said.

“Armenian eparchy instigated a legal case against the residents who appropriated the church area, but there’s no progress to report of,” a person in charge of legal issues at the Armenian eparchy, Levon Isakhanyan noted.

This is one among the many cases of misuse of Armenian churches in Georgia. The year 2009 saw a collapse of the Church of Mughnetsos, while in 2012, Surb Nshan was damaged in fire.