RELIGION AND CONFLICT POTENTIAL IN GEORGIA
Abstract
Religion rarely breeds global conflicts, yet on many occasions it deepens them.1 Potentially, it can also smooth over conflict situations. This is the way to approach Georgia’s conflict potential generated by the religious factor: we must identify the role of religion in the present confrontations (including the ethnic ones). We must analyze the role the outside world plays in this context and the degree to which the religious factor affects Georgia’s relations with the rest of the world.
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See: H. Müller, “Kampf der Kulturen—Religion als Strukturfaktor einer weltpolitischen Konfliktformation?” in: Politik und Religion (“Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Sonderheft,” 33/2002), M. Minkenberg, U. Willems (Hg.). Wiesbaden, 2003, S. 575.
V. Macharadze, Materialy po istorii russko-gruzinskikh otnosheniy vtoroy poloviny XVIII veka, Part III, Issue I, Tbilisi, 1988, p. 287.
For more detail, see: G. Rtskhiladze, “Georgian Foreign Policy of the Second Half of the 18th Century and the Religious Factor,” Religion (Tbilisi), No. 3-4, 1999, pp. 47-55 (in Georgian).
I. Chavchavadze, Thoughts (compiled by G. Kalandarishvili), Tbilisi, 1989, p. 13 (in Georgian). To exclude possible misunderstandings I should say that Chavchavadze added: the Georgian clerics at all times were doing their best to “uplift, raise, and ennoble the Fatherland and nationality to the level of faith,” which means that faith came above all else and that even the Motherland had no meaning without faith. Today post-Soviet Georgian nationalists often ignore this.
The author thanks Mr. Dmitry Shashkin, head of the IRI program in Tbilisi, for this information.
According to information supplied by Mr. Shashkin.
See: Demografia, ed. by Anzor Totadze, Tbilisi, No. 2 (7), 2004, p. 51.
Ibid., pp. 52-53.
Three churches and one monastery functioned in Ajaria before 1991. Between 1991 and 2001, at least 24 churches were either built or renovated (the author would like to thank Archbishop of Batumi and Skhalt Dimitry and the head of the Archbishop Secretariat for this information)
Unpublished documents from the author’s personal archive.
Cf. an article by a “liberal” priest Father Mikael Asatiani of 10 July, 2004 [http://kavkaz-uzel.ru/printdigest/digest/id/683372.html].
Sakartvelos Respublika, 11 September, 2003 (in Georgian).
[http://www.iberieli.org.ua/ru/?do=snews&id=1332].
[http://patriarchate.ge/ne/akt_sinoda.htm].
For the Georgian original and Russian translation see the Portal-Credo.ru Web site.
He said the same when opening the spring 2005 parliamentary session and described the Patriarch’s neutrality during the Rose Revolution as a “civil act of heroism.”
M. Brocker, “Zivilreligion—missionarisches Sendungsbewusstsein—christlicher Fundamentalismus? Religiöse Motivlagen in der (Außen-)politik George W. Bushs,” Zeitschrift für Politik, Heft 2, Munich, 2003, S. 122.
Ibidem. Here is an interesting parallel: Civil Region has boosted American patriotism (“America, the freest country of the world,” etc. See: ibid., S. 123). Saakashvili, too, is trying to boost Georgian patriotism with slogans of the “Ours is the finest flag in the world!” “Ajarians are the best Europeans!” type.
Ibidem.
Cf. topical processes of “deprivatization” and politicization of religion in Latin America, the U.S. and Europe (U. Willems, M. Minkenberg, Politik und Religion im Übergang—Tendenzen und Forschungsfragen am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts; Dies. (Hrsg.), 2003, s. o., S. 14).
The authority of the GOC proved insufficient to stem the confrontation of 1991-1993; it was more successful when it called for not using force during the “revolutionary” events in Tbilisi and later in Batumi.
[http://www.civil.ge/rus/article.php?id=3320]. It should be noted that the non-Orthodox confessions keep together.
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