Incident

Home page

Incident

Mullah of Fakhrali village: â€œThose who try to impede the restoration of the village mosque are Gamsakhurdiaâ€™s supportersâ€ â€“ VIDEO

Mullah of Fakhrali village: â€œThose who try to impede the restoration of the village mosque are Gamsakhurdiaâ€™s supportersâ€ â€“<font color=red> VIDEO </font>

17 September 2009 13:55 (UTC +04:00)

â€œAfter that priests from all parts of Georgia came to Fakhrali. In fact the priestsâ€™ demand is connected with Azerbaijan. They say though churches have been built in Balakan and Gakh regions, the Georgians living in Azerbaijan are not allowed to pray in these churches,â€ he said.

Chairman of the National Movement faction of Bolnisi municipality Gara Gulmammadov told APAâ€™s local correspondent that they are doing their best to prevent the incident from turning into a national, religious conflict.
â€œWe preserve stability. Some forces are interested in violating stability. As regards the restoration of the mosque, the region leadership gave permission. The leadership promised to help continue restoration of the mosque,â€ he saud.
Gulmammadov said the Alban church in Fakhrali forest is being reconstructed.
â€œThey do not tell us under what name the church is being reconstructed,â€ he said.

Mullah of Fakhrali village Adil Nabiyev said priests came to the village were carrying completely different ideology. â€œThey have completely different political views. Those priests are supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. They kept silence when we reminded about that. They intend to commit sabotage against the Azerbaijanis under the veil of religion. Priest David Saakadze from Tbilisi told journalists that Azerbaijanis are the guests of these lands. He said it was not Islamic country. In my opinion, real priest couldnâ€™t make such statements. Allah will protect his house as everyone protects his ownâ€.

The villagers told APA that the priests avoided the debates. â€œWe told them that we donâ€™t believe that they are religious figures. The religions are free. Therefore we doubt that they are clerics. They donâ€™t intend to talk with us. We told them if it is Georgian village where they were so far?â€

APA Georgian bureau reports that representative of the Tbilisi Friday Mosque will visit Fakhrali village on Thursday. Representative of the Caucasian Muslims Office Mashadi Ali Aliyev is in Tbilisi to negotiate restoration of the mosque with Georgian patriarch Ilia II.

Officials of the Azerbaijani embassy in Georgia also visited Fakhrali village today and talked with the villagers about the incident.