The civil group working on Davit Gareji issues is sending a special statement to the government. As Davit Katsarava, leader of the anti-occupation movement “Power is in Unity”, told InterPressNews, the statement will be sent to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, too.
He said one of their proposals is a public meeting with delimitation commission as well as presentation of experts’ vision related to this issue.
“The events that have been taking place since April 25 until now, have created the reality that the status quo of Davit Gareji monastery complex has been violated, as a result of which, Georgia has lost its access to Chichkhituri, Udabno and Resurrection monasteries. We know that the Georgian-Azerbaijani delimitation commission carries out intensive works, but despite these efforts, Georgia’s position has been deteriorated in this regard.
In particular, due to the inactivity of our government, official Azerbaijan is allowed to state in open statements that the above-mentioned sites are their sovereign territories. At the same time, a new infrastructure is being constructed on the disputed territory, while the work of the commission is not completed yet.
Therefore, the civil group working on Davit Gareji issues addresses the Government of Georgia and the Delimitation Commission:
The State Delimitation Commission shall introduce the basic provisions of the ongoing negotiations and confirm that Georgia’s position is based on the record made in the first protocol of the 1996 Delimitation Commission, which recognizes the 1938 map as the basic map of the border, which is confirmed by Azerbaijan’s official signature and a state seal.
A public meeting should be held with the extended composition of civil society, since there is a high public interest and the current information vacuum on this issue is causing a great deal of anxiety of the society and various interpretations of current events.
At the same meeting we would like to present our vision for regulation of situation that involves the concept, developed by experts.
We believe that this meeting and discussion will help us to defuse the current tensions in the society, to inform the population properly and to create a favourable environment for the government to solve the problem, ”says David Katsarava adding that if their proposals are not taken into account, they will continue patrolling, obtaining information through own sources and providing information to the society.
– Source: ipn.ge