Renewed Georgia-Azerbaijani border demarcation commission to resume talks next week
David Gareji is a complex of 22 Rock-hewn monasteries and more than 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells, located in Georgia’s south-east. Photo: Agenda.ge
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The joint commission working on the demarcation of the Georgia-Azerbaijani border will resume its work next week.
Georgian Foreign Minister Davit Zalklaiani announced at yesterday’s news briefing that the commission, which will be composed of new members, will be chaired by his deputy Lasha Darsalia.
This is a very important, sensitive issue, therefore, we should put all our emotions aside and let the commission work in a normal environment -relevant to our strategic partnership - to reach a mutually beneficial result”, Minister Zalkaliani stated.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has only demarcated the border with Turkey, while the borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia still need to be agreed upon.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili visited David Gareji and spoke with border guards on April 20, saying that the border with Azerbaijani should be demarcated in a timely manner. Photo: President's press office
- David Gareji is a complex of 22 Rock-hewn monasteries and more than 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells, located in Georgia’s south-east.
- Azerbaijani border guards did not allow clerics and visitors to enter the medieval Georgian monastery David Gareji for a couple of days last month.
- The problems with entrance started shortly after the Georgian President Salome Ziurabishvili’s visited the historic site.
The Georgian Patriarchate has stated that positive steps have also been taken during the “active negotiations” of Georgia and Azerbaijan regarding Georgia’s 6th century monastery complex David Gareji located at the conditional border between the two countries.
Azerbaijani border guards have now allowed clerics and visitors to enter the medieval Georgian monastery David Gareji, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said. The president’s administration stated that it is important that the commission working on the demarcation of the Georgia-Azerbaijan border renew work on the issue.
Clerics of the mediaeval David Gareji monastery complex at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border area say that Azerbaijani border guards are not allowing them into the Udabno Monastery of the complex and are also preventing visitors and pilgrims from entering the oldest sections of the monastery complex.
European experts have published a report for rehabilitating David Gareji, one of the principal monuments of cultural heritage in Georgia, after it was named among Europe’s seven most endangered sites last year.
The joint commission working on the demarcation of the Georgia-Azerbaijani border resumed its work today. Chaired by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Lasha Darsalia and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Deputy FM Khalaf Khalafov, the Commission held it first meeting in Baku.
Georgian clerics and public groups are holding a peaceful rally in Georgia’s David Gareji monastery complex, at the conditional border between Georgia and Azerbaijan. The rally comes amid negotiations between Georgia and Azerbaijan on the border, which has not been agreed upon since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has addressed Chairman of the Caucasus Muslim Board, Sheik-ul-Islam Allahshuqur Pasha-zade, to mediate with the ‘brotherly nation’ of Azerbaijan to ‘fairly resolve issues’ in David Gareji as current actions by the country [Azerbaijan] regarding two monasteries in Georgia’s 6th century monastery complex David Gareji are ‘absolutely unclear.’
The Georgian patriarchate is against the initiative of a group of Georgian scientists who offer making a disputed section of Georgia’s 6th-century monastery complex as a transboundary protected area.