Georgia, Azerbaijan debate power over ancient monastery’s territory
To hold about the places of worship with the Georgian area, Tbilisi possess suggested providing Azerbaijan an as yet publicly unspecified point regarding Georgian home close to the Azerbaijani border
An unsolved edging ranging from Georgia and you may Azerbaijan provides set under concern among Southern area Caucasus’s biggest social and you will spiritual landmarks, this new medieval David-Gareja monastery advanced, based in Georgia and you may Azerbaijan.
Devote partial-wasteland specific 70 kilometers southeast off Tbilisi along side Georgian border having Azerbaijan and you may within this Azerbaijan best, the fresh new cutting-edge, which has a wealthy distinctive line of cave frescoes, could have been an online site for argument and contemplation, since structure began regarding the sixth 100 years.
Most monasteries, specific nearly inaccessible and you can mainly damaged, are also to the Georgian area. Azerbaijan has got the monastery away from Bertubani, which includes frescoes of epic 12th-13th 100 years Georgian King Tamara and her child, Giorgi IV.
But who is to handle the newest David-Gareja monastery? If the Soviet Relationship laid out the new limits within next Soviet republics out-of Azerbaijan and Georgia, the monastery cutting-edge was separated in two. The brand new border among them today separate regions keeps stayed undamaged since the 1991. Area of the edging passes through the top of the new 813-meter-highest Udabno ridge (understood in Azerbaijan since Keshishdag), and therefore ports cavern monasteries towards the its ideal while having to the northern (Georgian-controlled) and you may south (Azerbaijani-controlled) hills.
The new monastery cutting-edge, with withstood attacks from the Tamerlane and you will Shah Abbas similar, keeps strategic relevance for Azerbaijan and you may Georgia. Regarding Udabno ridge, each other Azerbaijani and Georgian region can easily be tracked. “About military attitude, it condition enjoys pros for both nations,” told you Uzeir Jafarov, an independent Azerbaijani armed forces specialist during the Baku and you can a retired colonel. “Officially, regarding military argument, the side and this features control over these levels gets an excellent appealing factor.”
Edging conversations, lingering due to the fact 1991, recently reentered the news whenever Zviad Dzidziguri, good Georgian person in parliament on the opposition Old-fashioned Party, and you can president of your Democratic Top faction, claimed one to Azerbaijan had gone their border which have Georgia to make certain that one of many complex’s monasteries, Chichkhituri, is today in this Azerbaijani region, placing at stake the remaining monasteries around Georgian control.
This new Georgian overseas ministry features rejected the new report. From inside the an interview having EurasiaNet, a premier-level Azerbaijani State Border Control Services specialized, who expected to remain unknown, also stated that Azerbaijan had never ever moved the border. Yet, however, the new discussion goes on.
The best-understood area of the advanced, the fresh Udabno cavern monastery, which contain frescoes relationship whenever regarding eighth with the 13th centuries, as well as the monastery headquarters in the Lavra, are observed contained in this Georgia
“The we need to would is to get a familiar code with your Azerbaijani colleagues,” Georgian Deputy Overseas Minister Giorgi Manigaladze, who manages the official Percentage toward Border Delimitation and Demarcation, advised journalists in the Tbilisi to the Oct 30.
“There isn’t any room having territorial exchange [having Georgia]. There are not any negotiations more than this dilemma,” Deputy Overseas Minister Khalaf Khalafov, co-chairman of the intergovernmental percentage towards edging delimitation which have Georgia, told you during the a click briefing when you look at the Baku to the November dos. Azerbaijani authorities point out that in earlier asiandate Inloggen times three-years Georgia possess twice provided sections of Georgian territory in return for identification from the current border section of your David-Gareja monastery, but one Baku have rejected the newest has the benefit of both moments.
“That it area [Azerbaijan's an element of the monastery] have strategic pros for Azerbaijan. And in addition we have no goal of providing it to help you someone,” Garib Mammadov, president of Azerbaijani County Homes and you may Cartography Panel, told you for the a job interview with the Azerbaijani each and every day newsprint Echo. “This might be a proper overlook. The entire Southern area Caucasus might be monitored from this neglect really well. Why would we provide out?”