First of all we want to express tremendous respect for our co-citizens ethnic Armenians, and the Armenian Eparchy in Georgia. Multi-ethnicity and various denominations are the milestones which the Georgian State’s strength and freedom is based on.
The political vision of the President of Georgia and his team is based on multi-ethnic unity, which can be attributed to civil identity and is the basis for a free society. Every citizen of this country regardless of their ethnic origin and faith are equal and its equal owners.
The President of Georgia emphasized several times the exemplary devotion of our Armenian compatriots while contributing to the fight for freedom and independence of our country.
The Georgian society is also aware that there always have been and there are today political societies and groups in Georgia, which base their political prospects on spreading all kinds of phobias including Armenophobia. The President of Georgia stated many times that this kind of rhetoric is unacceptable and it must stay in the past.
On this note, the recent statement of the Armenian Eparchy related to freeing Vahagan Chakhalian from prison in Georgia causes certain surprise. The President of Georgia stressed in his statement that the ethnic origins of Vahagan Chakhalian have no relevance whatsoever. The case is related to criminal actions perpetrated by a Georgian citizen.
The President of Georgia expressed many times his categorically negative attitude towards the passed amnesty legislation especially towards freeing Russia’s spies, the vast majority of whom are Georgian citizens.
Additionally, the President of Georgia mentioned many times that among the freed persons there were persons who did not have Georgian citizenship convicted of being spies of Russia (for example Iuri Skrilnikov and Armen Gevorian) and freeing of whom the Russian Federation had been requesting for a long time.
The current government of Georgia does not even want to exchange spies of other countries in return for Georgian citizens who are falsely convicted of being spies in Russia’s prisons.
The reaction of the Armenian Eparchy expressed regarding this issue is not understandable. It is not understandable why the fact of freeing Russian spies and constructive criticism of Georgia’s new government became a motive for such politicized statements from the side of the Armenian Eparchy.
We hope that this misunderstanding was caused by being uninformed.