NGOs and Nigvziani Residents Negotiate

Nino Mshvidobadze, Guria

The nongovernmental organization, Union of Georgian Muslims, held a meeting about recent incidents in Nigvziani village near Ozurgeti; representatives from media organizations in the Guria region and Nigvziani residents attended the meeting.

Tariel Nakaidze, chairman of the Union of Georgian Muslims was quoted: “The first problems appeared in Nigvziani village two years ago; but the local population resolved the complicated situation then. Now, somebody is organizing these incidents in the village. According to unofficial information about 3 500 Muslims live in Lanchkhuti. They have no mosque nearby and they can only conduct religious services in Nigvziani village. I think these incidents are part of pre-election provocative promises. Somebody misled the local population and it resulted in escalating the situation.”

Humanrights.ge asked – did the National Movement and their candidate really promise Muslims living in Lanchkhuti district to construct a mosque for them? Tariel Nakaidze answered: “I cannot confirm this but it is known that similar rumors provoke the situation. The local population did not escalate the tension and a certain person is behind this.”

The Head of Ozurgeti office of the Young Lawyers’ Association, Tamaz Trapaidze, said that everything was a result of lack of communication and education. “Nobody listens to the fact that freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution and everybody has right to conduct religious services.”

It was rumored that a Turkish businessman funds Muslims in Nigvziani village, which was categorically denied at the meeting. Mufti Zurab Tsetskhladze said: “A Turkish citizen purchased a house and then sold it to a Georgian citizen because he could not use it. We opened a temple there. Anyone claiming that we did not have enough funds to buy the house is not correct. We collected the money and bought everything with our own money.”

Nigvziani residents also attended the meeting. One of them, Shorena Chanturia said: “The village governor Irakli Gujabidze wanted to come here but apparently he was intimidated and could not come. Althogugh Nigvziani residents do not throw stones at people with other religions and are not intolerant, it would have been nice if they had informed us about their intention to open a Muslim temple in the house before they did so. This temple is going to serve residents of 10 villages and it disappointed us. A ten member initiative group was set up in the village, which will observe how many people will attend prayers on Fridays; Nana Kvachadze is the leader of this group. The villagers are divided into two groups. We think this tension was created artificially and not on religious grounds.”

We asked who could benefit from the tension in the village and who could stand behind these incidents; Nigvziani villagers believe the person responsible is a candidate for the governor of the village but they did not name him/her.

Humanrights.ge interviewed Tariel Nakaidze too.

-Mr. Tariel, what do you think is the solution for this situation? Many people say that the real motive of this controversy was not religious but political. What can you say about it?

-We maximally try to expose real reasons of controversy with similar meetings and dialogues in order to avoid manipulation with other topics. At this stage, the political environment also supports the agitation of this topic. I might be mistaken but I think it is true. We should try to minimally involve politics in this affair. We should give a chance to each other and not get offensive. Dialogue will guarantee resolution of this controversy. There are lawful methods too and they will also play key role in it but dialogue does not have alternative.

-What do you think, will Muslims conduct ordinary service next?

-Yes they will. I think the local population will independently resolve this problem. It is not necessary for media and NGO representatives to arrive in the village every Friday. Everybody has implemented their responsibilities. Now the local population shall do their job and I think it will positively improve the situation.

We got in touch with Irakli Gujabidze and asked why he could not attend meeting in Ozurgeti.

-I had personal problems and could not go there.

-We were told a certain Nana Kvachadze did not allow you to go there…

-No of course it is not true. Nana Kvachadze has nothing to do with it. I could not go there because I had some problems.

-People say this woman set up a ten member group…

-This woman is a teacher at our school. I cannot say anything about the group. Active residents of the village discuss how to resolve this problem. We want to avoid farther controversy. No ten member group was set up.

-People also say that this group will monitor how many people will arrive from other villages to attend prayers in this village…

-It is a general position of the villagers that the local Muslims can pray in that house; but people should not come here from other districts.

-But people come from other villages in the same Lanchkhuti district. What will you do in this case?

-We cannot ban anybody to pray but local Christians’ request people did not arrive from other villages. The local Christian population does not want to see mass Muslim services here.