People's Party of Georgia urges Turkey to amend agreement on mosques construction

March 20, 2011 - 16:34 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The People's Party of Georgia sent a letter to the Turkish Ambassador, demanding amendment of the provision on mosques construction. "We are gladdened by the successes of Turkey - our neighbor and friendly country - in the establishment and strengthening of democracy based on traditional and national values of its people. Thus, our stance on the matter should be clearer for you. We would like to recall that the agreement signed between Georgia and Turkey has already caused a wave of protest in our country. We have not reached consensus on these matters. Due to it, the agreement may jeopardize the Georgian-Turkish relations; Georgia may face problems of religious nature. Hopefully, you will conceive the Georgian society's stance," reads the letter.

Although the Georgian President does its utmost to "make friends" with Turkey, sacrificing not only the relations with Armenia, but also Georgia's national interests, construction of new mosques in Georgia cannot lead to any positive result. Saakashvili cannot but understand that the mosques will be followed by military bases, possible seizure of Ajaria and loss of sovereignty. And all this will be done with a tacit approval of the U.S. - the main sponsor of the Georgian President. Yet, there is a circumstance, which can indeed hamper implementation of the Turkish plan -Christianity is rather strong in Georgia, and the words of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II often sound more influential than those of the President. Meanwhile, none of the Christian patriarchs would allow constructing new mosques and strengthening Islam. However, there are such precedents in the Georgian history - Georgian rulers easily adopted Islam in previous centuries, if it helped them to come to power.