Population VS Mother Superior of Bodbe Nunnery (part 2)

Gela Mtivlishvili, Kakheti

 It Is Your Property but It Does Not Belong To You

On April 12, 2007 Goderzi Gordeziani purchased 5 hectares of pasture near his house. He was leasing the land before that since 2001. The term of the lease contract was 49 years. Gordeziani personally applied to the Kakheti Regional Department of Registration and Privatization of State Property. The letter of the department # 625, issued on March 10, 2007, states that documents provided by Gordeziani was compared with the documents preserved in the department and the provided documents were confirmed to be legal and valid. Head of the Department, Butskhrikidze informed Gordeziani that he has right to purchase the land. Consequently, on April 12, 2007. Gordeziani purchased the pasture and paid the sum for it; he registered the property at Public Registry as well.

On April 30, 2007 Head of Kakheti Main Department of the Registration and Privatization of State Property issued a new resolution on abolishment of the order issued on April 12, 2007; that means the order based on which the land was assigned to Gordeziani was annulled. Based on the new resolution Sighnaghi Public Registry made amendments and cancelled the ownership of Gordeziani on the land. The owner brought administrative suit against the new resolution issued on April 30, 2007 but in vain. Telavi District Court did not discuss his suit; it was not accepted at all.

Gordeziani claims that 5 hectares of land was seized from him based on the request of the Monastery. “Before that the Mother had asked several times to sell the land to them but we refused. So, finally we lost it at all,” said Gordeziani.

After the pasture was seized Sighnaghi office of Public Registry registered the land as state property as a land with forest on it. However, Forest Department of Kakheti region issued a notification which states that the plot does not belong to state forest fund.

Editor of Magazine VS Superior Mother

Ana Khunashvili – Gordeziani, publisher and editor of the magazine “Bodbis Samreklo”: “I have been member of the parish since 1989. I started publishing the magazine in 2003. I asked the Mother Superior information about the donor of the nunnery, Nina Kostsina and she refused. I issued first number of the magazine in July of 2003. The Superior Mother sent people to me who told the Mother wanted me to assign the name of the magazine to her; otherwise I would not be able to publish the magazine again. Despite her threatening I did not accept her offer. However, short time later I had to stop it. The Mother created complete isolation for me. She prohibited people working in the monastery and clergymen to contact with me. When I enter the monastery nobody speaks with me. In 2004, one of the nuns physically and verbally assaulted me in the yard. I filed complaint about the incident at Sighnaghi Police but nobody interrogated me.

I released second number of the magazine in February of 2004. I published an article criticizing the Mother Superior in it. As soon as she heard about it with the support of clergymen she withdrew almost every copy of the issue from the local residents. They tore away the page where the article was published and then returned the magazines to the people. The magazine has not been published since 2004.”

According to the Sighnaghi district department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a suit of Ana Khunashvili – Gordeziani was not registered at their department in 2004-2008. However, there is a special case supervising the conflict between the Bodbe Nunnery and Gordezainis at Sighnaghi police department.

Case on Ilia Gogolashvili

Ilia Gogolashvili is one of those who lived in the house located in the territory where the monastery is building a café; he lived there with his mother, Rima Matinova. Ilia Gogolashvili is a disabled person though he recalls every detail of the controversy.

“Before they destroyed our house, Nana Makharoblidze, nun from the monastery, told us several times that the monastery was going to purchase our house. My mother and I refused to sell the house because we did not want to go anywhere. Despite our refusal Makharoblidze was bothering us continuously; she was warning us to sell our house immediately, because soon we could lose our house at all without any reimbursement. Since we lived near the monastery and my mother and I were unemployed, we spent most time in the yard of the monastery. Police forcefully took us to the police station many times where they beat me and blamed for having breached the peace in the monastery. They kept me in the isolator for several days. During one of similar occasions when I was detained and my mother was not at home (she worked as a cleaner at Sighnaghi hospital) our house was pulled down. Later on, my mother was lodged into the flat in Sighnaghi which belongs to Nana Makharoblidze. I still live in one room in an abandoned house in Kedeli,” said Ilia Gogolashvili.

We could get hold of only two protocols about the detention of Ilia Gogolashvili at Sighnaghi district court.

On March 25, 2007, inspector Mamuka Kokiashvili from Sighnaghi district department arrested Ilia Gogolashvili. The protocol on administrative crime states that he was using foul language near the Monastery and breached public order. Case materials show that police was reported about the incident from the monastery. Judge Khvicha Kikikashvili found Ilia Gogolashvili as a violator of the law and he fined him with 100 GEL.

According to official data police arrested Ilia Gogolashvili on September 5, 2007 for the second time. An extract from the conclusion of Sighnaghi district court: “According to case materials on administrative crime, Maka Nadikashvili, inspector of Sighnaghi district police department, detained drunken Ilia Gogolashvili, a resident of Kedeli settlement in Sighnaghi on September 5, 2007. He was using foul language near the monastery and was breaching public order. The protocol on the detention is enclosed with the protocol on being reported by phone call, explanation letters of Mother Tamar (Nana Chanturia) and Mother Ioana (Makharoblidze) about the incidents.”

Based on Article 32, Part Ii of the Administrative Code a disabled person shall not be arrested for administrative crime. Consequently, Judge Tamaz Jaliashvili fined Ilia Gogolashvili with 100 GEL.

Both resolutions of the court states that Ilia Gogolashvili admitted that he had committed administrative crime. In fact, as Gogolashvili explained despite the oppression from the policemen, he never confirmed that he had used foul language near the monastery. “I said at the trial that they were arresting me to get rid of me. They wanted to appropriate my house but nobody listened to me,” said Ilia Gogolashvili.

Information from Public Registry

In order to find out whether nun from the monastery, Ioana, (Nana Makharoblidze) is really interested in purchasing the houses and lands surrounding the monastery and if there is any property registered on her name in Sighnaghi we applied to Sighnaghi Office of the Public Registry. We learned that the following property is registered on Nana Makharoblidze in Sighnaghi:

1. Land of 185 sq. meters and a construction on it in St. Nino Street # 9 in Sighnaghi. Date of Registration March 15, 2007;

2. Land of 460 sq. meters with a construction on it in St. Nino Street # 17 in Sighnaghi. Date of Registration February 5, 2005;

3.  One floor in the former building of Dispenser of Tuberculosis with the space of 28, 4 sq. meters in St. Nino Street, in Sighnaghi, Date of Registration February 5, 2007;

4.  Space of 128 sq. meters in the former building of Dispenser for Tuberculosis in St. Nino Street in Sighnaghi. Date of Registration February 26, 2007

5. Non-agricultural space of 31, 5 sq. meters in St. Nino Street # 9 in Sighnaghi. Date of Registration February 7, 2005.

6. Nonagricultural space of 38 sq. meters in St. Nino Street # 9 in Sighnaghi, date of registration June 26, 2006.

7. Nonagricultural land with the space of 600 sq. meters in 1st Lane of St. Nino Street in Sighnaghi. Date of Registration January 9, 2006

As for the statements of the owners of the residential houses in St. Nino Street in Sighnaghi who claimed that Sighnaghi office of the Public Registry deny them to register their properties without the permission of the Superior Mother of the Monastery, Tamaz Burdaladze, head of the Registration Office, stated: “in 2008, based on the resolution of Nino Burjanadze, that time interim president of Georgia, the surrounding territory with 60 hectares of forest on it was assigned to the monastery. However, we could not register the property on the monastery because we cannot register it according to the rule on temporary usage. We do not demand the residents of Kedeli to provide agreements from the monastery but we tell them that both sides should appear to our office together in order not to register one and the same territory twice. We are ready to register the property on everybody who will provide the documents that prove their ownership on them, purchase contracts, certificate on heritage or certificate of ownership. If citizens fail to provide these documents from the Municipality Board, we are not guilty for refusing them.”

The Monastery Denies Accusations

Superior Mother of Bodbe Nunnery, Mother Teodora (Makhviladze) denies all accusations except her request to remove huts in the yard of Gordeziani.

“We really want to own the surrounding territory. Historically this land belonged to the church so we are eager to gain the territory back but we are not seizing anything from anybody. As for Gordezianis, they are slandering us. I understand commercial interest of these people; I do not know what is envisaged under the law but we are preserving the interests of the church and monastery. Nobody has insulted Ana Gordeziani; just the opposite she insulted us once. As for Ilia Gogolashvili, could you explain how I should behave when a person is cursing in front of the monastery? We had no other way out but applying to the police. The information about drinking water is also right. We and those several families also need the stream. As for the construction of the dinner-house for the monastery it is agreed with the Patriarchate and I did not know if we needed any permission from the local administration. All in all, Gordezianis are initiators of this slander against us,” said Superior Mother of Bodbe Monastery.