Social Justice Center responds to the recent events in the Tchkondidi Diocese and calls on the Ministry of Interior Affairs to strictly uphold the rule of law and social peace.

The Social Justice Center studied the developments in several monasteries in Martvili on November 5-7. Our observations on the processes showed that the excommunicated clergy were evicted from their homes in Salkhino Monastery by the Patriarchate, using violent groups, without proper procedures, and in this process, the police demonstratively disregarded the supreme interests of law and security. Instead of checking the legality of the eviction process and protecting the security and legal interests of the forced clergy, the police arbitrarily detained some of them and did not even give any explanations for several hours.

Description of the events of November 5-7

On November 5, 2021, at 6:00 am, Stefane Kalaijashvili, Bishop of Lechkhumi and Tsageri, who was appointed as interim ruler of the Tchkondidi Diocese, the lawyer of Patriarchate and more than 50 members of the Chokhosani Society of the Georgian Patriarchate visited the excommunicated priests in the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary in Salkhino and demanded to leave the territory of the monastery immediately. After the refusal of the clergy, at the instruction of a patriarch's lawyer, dozens of Chokhosani entered the priestly cells, occupied the clergy's living quarters, and prevented the clergy from entering the place. The clergy on the spot tried to explain to the people who came to the place that they had no right to expel them from the monastery, at which point suddenly the police arrested several clergymen and took them to the Martvili Police Department. The detainees told us that the police officers did not give them any explanation about the arrest, its grounds, and relevant rights. Only a few hours after being taken to the police station, when a representative of the Public Defender of Georgia arrived on the scene, the police explained to the clergy that two of them had been charged under Articles 166 (petty hooliganism) and 173 (police disobedience) of the Administrative Code of Georgia and some of them were in the police building for questioning.

It is noteworthy that the police did not even respond to the Chokhosani’s invasion in the territory of the monastery and arbitrary occupation of the cells where the clergy was living. According to Bishop Stefane Kalaijashvili, "the Chokhosanis were sent by the Patriarchate to maintain order here."

The clergy expelled from the Salkhino Monastery was not allowed to enter the monastery in the following days either, due to which the local parishioners held a rally on November 6 and asked the mobilized law enforcers to allow them to enter the priest cells. Priests were allowed to enter the cells and take their personal belongings only on the 7^th of November.

A rally demanding the return of the clergy to the monastery was also held on November 7, during which police officers again detained 7 protesters only from the excommunicated clerics, including 2 clergymen.

The excommunicated clerics are currently in other Baldi and Tsachkhura monasteries. According to them, the expulsion from the Salkhino monastery by the interim ruler is explained by the economic interest in the farm they have been cultivating for years. However, they still do not feel safe and are afraid that they will be evicted from other monasteries as well.

The general context of the events

It should be noted that the priests expelled from the territory of the monastery have been living and working in Salkhino, Baldi, and Tsachkhura monasteries of Tchkondidi Diocese for years. Since 2019, when the Patriarchate suspended the authority of Metropolitan Petre Tsaava of the Tchkondidi Diocese, they, along with several clergymen (a total of 13 priests), have demanded a meeting of the Synod and a fair hearing of the case of Metropolitan Petre Tsaava.

On September 11, 2021, Stefane Kalaijishvili, Bishop of Lechkhumi and Tsageri, who was appointed as interim ruler of the Tchkondidi Diocese, by a single decision "completely cut off the mentioned priests" from the monastic order and forbade them to wear monastic and other church clothes. This decision is considered illegal by excommunicated and other clerics and theologians. For example, according to the commendable theologian Zurab Jashi, “there is no law that deprives a nun of her nunhood. [..] Someone may no longer be a bishop, may no longer be a metropolitan, but the nunhood cannot be deprived. No matter what sin a nun commits, no matter what crime she commits, you cannot take it away." One part of the theologians and clergymen request and expect the Synod to revise the decision of Metropolitan Stefane, but so far to no avail.

A few days after the decision to excommunicate, on November 2, the Georgian Patriarchate asked the excommunicated priests to leave the territory of the monastery and set November 4 as the deadline. The priests responded to the request with a letter dated November 3 and asked the Georgian Patriarch to make a synodal decision regarding their excommunication. According to them, the position of the Patriarchate violates the statute of the governing body of the church, because "according to the first chapter # 5 (3) of the statute of the governing board of the Georgian Autocephalous Orthodox Church the Georgian Church carries out its activities by the resolution of local assemblies of the church. Also, according to chapter # 9 of the Holy Synod of Georgian Church is the last resort for clergy and laity who have been sentenced by the diocesan ruling priest with the priesthood ban. However, instead of internal deliberations and constructive agreements, Metropolitan Stefane planned the process of their forcible eviction from the monastery.

Primary legal assessment of processes

According to our observations, the treatment of critically-minded clerics in the Tchkondidi Diocese has become systematic persecution. However, unfortunately, the Patriarchate is not responding properly to the crisis in the Tchkondidi Diocese, and the radical decisions of the Bishop Stefane of Lefkhumi and Tsageri, who have been appointed as interim ruler of the Tchkondidi Diocese triggers internal tensions within the parish and are fully tolerated by the church administration.

The most problematic in this process is the role of the local police, which is unable to play the role of an impartial defender of the law and does not intentionally provide a proper legal response to the facts of violence and persecution against the clergy. The blend of state institutions to ecclesiastical power, the apparent loyalty, and the violation of the principle of religious neutrality, have become a sign of our political system in recent years.

The issue of the legality of eviction of clergymen from Salkhino Monastery is also problematic. Although the building of Salkhino Monastery is on the balance of the Patriarchate, the current legislation provides for pre-established civil and criminal procedures for eviction, without which the eviction process is not allowed and takes on illegal content. The civil legal mechanism for recovering an item from illegal possession requires filing a lawsuit and starting a dispute, and only after the dispute is over does it allow the procedure of evicting a person from an illegally occupied space. Within the framework of the criminal mechanism (Order of 2016 of the Minister of Interior Affairs of Georgia “On approving the rule of eviction/removal of an illegal owner from a house/apartment and/or other property”) for police officers to forcibly evict/remove a person from the occupied space, the unlawful occupation of a particular space by a person and the relevant legal conditions must be approved (including, there must be information issued by an official body on the illegal possession, confirming the initiation and ongoing of the investigation). By the same act, after applying, the relevant notification is addressed to the alleged illegal possessor and he is given a deadline to leave the territory.

Our organization cannot enter into the ecclesiastical legal review of the decisions related to the exile and the residence of the excommunicated clergy/monks, however, from the perspective of the current legislation, the violation of the eviction procedure by the patriarchate and the state is clear. It is obvious that in the present case the forced eviction of the clergy was initiated by the Patriarchate without any civil or criminal eviction proceedings, and the representatives of the Georgian Patriarchate, bypassing legal proceedings, forced the clergy to leave their homes.

The sudden eviction of monks from their traditional cells, by force and without an offer of alternative living space, along with a legal problem, is an inhumane decision and may become the basis for criticism of black clergy for its internal ecclesiastical policies on social protection.

Unfortunately, the police also failed to deter illegal eviction and follow proper legal procedures in this process. The apparent loyalty shown by the police to the local bishop and the patriarchate during the ongoing processes in the Tchkondidi Diocese is a violation of the principle of religious neutrality, and it ultimately takes the form of negligence and abuse of power. It is particularly concerning that in this sensitive process, the police forget the high public interest of maintaining social peace and, due to their biased positioning, are unable to effectively prevent and manage tensions and conflicts within the parish locally.

Request:

To this end, Social Justice Center calls:

Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia:

• Provide adequate legal response to the ongoing events in Tchkondidi, including the persecution of excommunicated clerics, and adhere to the principles of the rule of law and the religious neutrality of the state in this process;
• The management of the agency should take into account the difficulties faced by the local police and take adequate institutional measures for the effective prevention and management of conflicts by the police in the Diocese;

The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia

• Launch an investigation of the facts of persecution and negligence during the events of November 5-7;

Georgian Patriarchate

• Understand the dire social consequences of the ongoing processes in the Tchkondidi Diocese for the parish and the local community as a whole and take all measures for the peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Diocese;
• Protect the social interests and safety of monks and nuns in the process.

It should be noted, that shortly the Social Justice Center will address the Prosecutor's Office with a substantiated statement on behalf of the exiled clerics regarding the above-mentioned legal circumstances and request an investigation of the facts of professional negligence as well as arbitrariness.

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