The Office of the Ombudsman of Armenia initiated immediate steps to study the events that took place in the courtyard of the temple of the village of Gumburdo
ArmInfo. The Office of the Ombudsman of Armenia initiated immediate steps to study the events that took place in the courtyard of the temple of the Armenian- populated village of Gumburdo (Kumurdo) in Javakhk (Georgia).
As the press service of the Ombudsman's office told ArmInfo, all developments related to the incident are in the focus of attention of human rights defender Arman Tatoyan. "On the very first day of the incident, the Ombudsman's office staff contacted the office of the Public Defender of Georgia, and Tatoyan personally several times with Ocha Nanuashvili, the Ombudsman of Georgia. According to the agreements reached, the office of the Ombudsman of Georgia will pay special attention to the statements submitted by the Armenian community. Relatives of the persons participating in the incident from Armenia can apply to the office of the Ombudsman in Armenia to clarify the relevant information, "the office statement said.
Note that on September 30, the Armenians of Gamburdo village, wanted to establish a khachkar in the courtyard of the local church, but met resistance from the police. Special forces drove up to the scene of the incident, and after a while, stones were sent to the village by the villagers. As a result, there were victims from both sides. The situation was exhausted only after the head of the Georgian Interior Ministry, Georgy Mgebrishvili, arrived in the place. Since Tbilisi intends to transfer the church under the protection of UNESCO, according to the laws of the organization the establishment of the cross-stone is a violation. This caused a confrontation between the police and the population of the village. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia instituted criminal proceedings under three articles in particular: "Attack on a police officer or other authority or public institution"; "Damage or destruction of a thing" and "Hooliganism in aggravating circumstances, committed with the use of firearms or other items used as weapons."
Earlier, in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent, the deputy from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, chairman of the Javakhk compatriot Shirak Torosyan said that at the moment the situation has already stabilized. "The parties came to a consensus and decided to leave this issue in the competence of the churches of the two countries," Torosyan said. "Speaking about the reasons why the problem arose when establishing Khachkar, after all the Armenian community established them throughout Javakhk, Torosyan pointed out several reasons. "This may be a provocation, ahead of the upcoming elections in October to the bodies of local self-government (Sakrebulo). Besides, of course, the Armenian-Georgian relations reached a completely new friendly level, mutual visits and meetings increased. Naturally, they do not like the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem at all, and the representatives of these communities are constantly trying to kindle enmity among us by speculating on the issue of Javakhk self-determination, which is supposedly sought by local Armenians, "Torosyan said. the vice-speaker of the Armenian parliament, the head of the Armenian-Georgian friendship group, Eduard Sharmazanov, talked to the phone and expressed the hope that, based on friendly relations between the two countries, the incident would be quickly resolved. Head of the Police of Armenia Vladimir Gasparyan also held a telephone conversation on this matter with his Georgian counterpart.