Thousands protest in Yerevan against Georgian vandalism

Bloggers first to blow the whistle on desecration of Armenian Church

Published: Saturday December 06, 2008

Protesters opposed the takeover of Armenian church properties by the Georgian Church in Georgia. Photolure

Yerevan - Thousands of students from 12 universities and representatives of several nongovernmental organizations staged a protest in downtown Yerevan on December 3 at the United Nations building. The demonstrators were there to present a letter to the Representative of the UN office in Armenia, Consuelo Vidal, about the vandalism and desecration of Sourb Norashen Armenian Church in Tbilisi. Ms. Vidal met with the young protestors and promised that she would pass their letter on to the UNESCO office.

The demonstrators then proceeded to the Georgian Embassy where they met with Ambassador Revaz Gachechiladze to voice their concern at blatant violations against the Armenian Church.

A day earlier, a group of bloggers in Yerevan marched toward the Georgian embassy carrying a black casket labeled, "The Newborn Georgian Democracy," protesting the "destruction and desecration of Armenian cultural monuments in Georgia."

The bloggers were the first to blow the whistle on the latest act of desecration of the church. A blogger by the name of Vesta had posted the following: "Today, on November 16th, father Tariel Sikinchelashvili, along with several workers, started to demolish the graves of Tamamshyanns placed in the backyard of Norashen church. The crowd of frustrated Tbilisi-Armenians demanded that tombstones be returned to their original locations." Fr. Sikinchelashvili earlier had initiated the construction of a fence, making sure to use symbols peculiar to the Georgian Orthodox Church. After a public uproar, Tbilisi City Hall said that the fence was illegal and would have to be dismantled. However no action was ever taken. On the contrary, Fr. Sikinchelashvili began replacing Armenian gravestones with Georgian ones as bloggers noted. The latest threat to Sourb Norashen is not new and was reported on earlier by an Armenian blogger by the name of Pigh in June. Since then, another blogger, 517 Design, has started a Facebook group to protest the inaction of the Georgian authorities in preventing this violation.