YEREVAN (Armenpress) —Parliament Member and head of the Javakhk Patriotic Union Shirak Torosyan condemned in a press conference this week an attack by Georgian law enforcement on Armenians in the village of Gumburdo in Javakhk, who had been erecting a cross-stone.
According to him, several churches are built, reconstructed and re-consecrated every year in Javakhk, and there have been no problems with the Georgian authorities so far.
“The residents of the village tried to put forward the issue of the erection of the cross-stone, despite the preliminary agreement that it should be erected after the elections. A disproportionate amount of force was used, something that deserves our condemnation,” Torosyan said.
Father Vahram Melikyan, head of the Mother See’s Press Service, similarly expressed his disappointment.
He said, “Recently reconstruction was carried out during which several tombs were ruined and the remains of the dead were taken to another place together with the construction remains. Leaning about this, the village residents put the remains in more than three dozen sacks and re-buried them near the church. They wished also to erect a cross-stone in the place of the reburial. The erection of the cross-stone was prohibited by the law enforcement bodies of Georgia, which led to this unpleasant incident and causing some tensions.”
The Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia continues meetings with the Georgian authorities and the representatives of the Georgian Church to defuse tensions, he said.
