Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Christian and Muslim population continue to argue in the village of Nigvziani of the Guriisky district. Tension began to grow on October 25 when local Christians didn’t let Muslims conduct a tradition prayer. Then, the question on the right of Muslims to live in Nigvziani and pray according to their faith appeared. Human rights organizations warn that if the new authorities do not interfere with the conflict and provide religious equality of residents, the incident may turn into serious consequences for the whole country.
Muslim Georgians appeared in Nigvziani 25 years ago when an environmental disaster took place in neighboring Adzharia, which left thousand families without homes. The authorities of the Georgian SSR decided to resettle aggrieved people in various parts of the country. Of course nobody paid attention to religious differences at that moment. The communist regime wouldn’t let a conflict on this ground. Moreover, people belonged to one ethnic group: Muslim Georgians and Christian Georgians lived peacefully in Adzharia. And Adzhar Georgians have lives in Nigvziani together with Christians for many years and conducted their religious ceremonies and traditions.
However, the conflict appeared during celebration of Eid al-Adha not accidentally. A part of local population has been dissatisfied with the fact that their neighbors support different traditions for a long time. On October 25 young people shut off the road for Muslims who marched to a prayer hall. Nigvziani has no mosque. A prayer hall is home of Avtandil Tsintskalashvili, a local resident. “Of course, he has a right to establish a mosque in his house, but we won’t let them turn it into a demonstration,” one of Christian local residents told journalists. Moreover, Christian Georgians do not like that Muslims from other villages come to Nigvziani for praying as they couldn’t organize a prayer hall in their villages.
The police interfered for preventing a fight only when two sides gathered in the center of the village and were ready to beat each other. Nigvziani residents surrounded Tsintskalashvili’s house but couldn’t break into it. Their main demand was: “We don’t forbid praying in a private house, but it shouldn’t be a demonstration with participation of residents from other villages.” Muslim residents answer that their religion has special traditions and ceremonies and it would be ridiculous to forbid residents of other villages to come to their prayer hall.
Human rights nongovernmental organizations also see that demands are absolutely absurd. “A prohibition for demonstrative religious service violates a fundamental right for self-expression,” the header of Liberal Initiative Mamuka Kardava told Vestnik Kavkaza. “If a religious ceremony requires joint marching to a prayer hall, prohibiting this means prohibiting faith.”
Some residents of Nigvziani even said that the village should be occupied by Christians only. “We are not against Adzhar Georgians who live here, but they should become Christians,” Ketevan Girdaladze said. At the moment 1200 people are Christians and 200 are Muslims in Nigvziani.
The authorities are still managed to fight the fire, but for how long will they have resources for this? Many observers ask a reasonable question: why did the conflict appear right after the elections after which the power changed in the country?
The prayer hall in Nigvziani was established three years ago. Muslims conducted their religious ceremonies freely. Why didn’t Christian residents protest against it earlier? The answer is obvious: strict policy of Vano Merabishvili and Mikhail Saakashvili would severely react at the exaggeration on inter-religious hatred. The initiators would most probably be sent to prison. After the victory of softer democratic forces which avoid cruel punishments in settlement of difficult issues, a xenophobia conflict appeared in the village, and the new authorities don’t know what to do.
Nevertheless, the incident in Nigzvani shows that Georgia (despite huge efforts of the pro-Western reformers) is too far from the national-civil identity and its socio-political structure is vulnerable.
