To hold about the churches toward Georgian territory, Tbilisi has actually proposed offering Azerbaijan an up to now in public unspecified point out-of Georgian residential property nearby the Azerbaijani border
An unsolved edging between Georgia and you may Azerbaijan has actually set under matter one of many South Caucasus’s most significant social and you will spiritual attractions, the newest gothic David-Gareja monastery complex, based in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Devote semi-wilderness some 70 miles the southern part of of Tbilisi along side Georgian edging having Azerbaijan and you will inside Azerbaijan best, the new state-of-the-art, that contains a refreshing type of cave frescoes, has been an online site having argument and contemplation, since structure began on the sixth 100 years.
A lot more monasteries, certain almost inaccessible and you may mainly wrecked, are also on the Georgian area. Azerbaijan has got the monastery off Bertubani, which features frescoes of your own legendary twelfth-13th 100 years Georgian Queen Tamara and her son, Giorgi IV.
However, who will be manage new David-Gareja monastery? When the Soviet Commitment defined the latest boundaries between the then Soviet republics out-of Azerbaijan and you may Georgia, the fresh monastery advanced was broke up in two. The latest border between them now separate places possess remained unchanged since 1991. The main edging undergoes the top the fresh new 813-meter-large Udabno ridge (recognized in Azerbaijan since Keshishdag), hence ports cave monasteries to your its most readily useful and possess on north (Georgian-controlled) and southern (Azerbaijani-controlled) slopes.
The brand new monastery cutting-edge, with withstood periods by the Tamerlane and you can Shah Abbas alike, retains strategic benefit for both Azerbaijan and Georgia. In the Udabno ridge, each other Azerbaijani and you may Georgian area can be simply tracked. “On the armed forces viewpoint, that it position have benefits for both nations,” told you Uzeir Jafarov, an independent Azerbaijani army expert inside the Baku and a retired colonel. “Officially, when it comes to military argument, along side it which keeps command over this type of heights gets good appealing factor.”
Border conversations, lingering since the 1991, recently reentered the news headlines when Zviad Dzidziguri, good Georgian person in parliament into the opposition Conventional Cluster, and you can president of Democratic Side faction, advertised that Azerbaijan had gone its border having Georgia to make sure that among the many complex’s monasteries, Chichkhituri, are today within this Azerbaijani territory, placing on the line the remainder monasteries less than Georgian handle.
The latest Georgian international ministry has actually refuted new declaration. For the an interview with EurasiaNet, a leading-top Azerbaijani State Edging Handle Provider specialized, whom requested to keep anonymous, in addition to stated that Azerbaijan got never moved their edging. Yet, however, brand new argument continues.
A knowledgeable-recognized the main complex, the fresh Udabno cavern monastery, that contain frescoes relationships up to about eighth on 13th ages, while the monastery headquarters at Lavra, can be found in this Georgia
“All of the we should instead create is to obtain a common code with our Azerbaijani acquaintances,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Manigaladze, whom oversees the official Payment on Border Delimitation and Demarcation, told journalists in Tbilisi to the Oct 30.
“There’s no area to have territorial exchange [having Georgia]. There are not any dealings over this issue,” Deputy International Minister Khalaf Khalafov, co-chairman of one’s intergovernmental percentage for the edging delimitation that have Georgia, said from the a hit briefing in Baku into November 2. Azerbaijani officials say that in the past three-years Georgia has actually twice provided parts of Georgian region in return for recognition out-of the present day edging division of your Modesto escort service David-Gareja monastery, however, you to definitely Baku enjoys denied the fresh also offers each other times.
“That it region [Azerbaijan’s an element of the monastery] provides proper benefits to own Azerbaijan. Therefore don’t have any goal of giving it to some one,” Garib Mammadov, chairman of your Azerbaijani County Homes and you will Cartography Committee, said from inside the a job interview for the Azerbaijani each day papers Echo. “That is a strategic neglect. The whole Southern area Caucasus might be monitored from this neglect really well. Why must we give it aside?”