Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan last week officially hosted the Speaker of Georgia’s’ Parliament Davit Bakradze and the delegation led by him. During the meeting Prime Minister Sargsyan raised the issue of the Norashen Armenian Church in Tbilisi. Georgian authorities see the resolution of this thorny problem to rest with legislative action. The Armenian PM asked the head of Georgia’s legislature what stage the process had reached and what were the prospects for such a settlement. Davit Bakradze noted that for his country a common position of the Georgian and Armenian churches stemming from constructive dialogue was an important factor in the matter and that it was a process that the Georgian government was ready to support. Davit Bakradze also stressed that Georgia was interested in settling the problem without additional politicization. Father Tariel Sikinchelashvili, of the Greek Orthodox Church, according to official reports has been removed from his post serving at the Georgian church neighboring Norashen and has been transferred elsewhere. The problem has been the focus of attention of the Georgian-Armenian community and the diocese of the Armenian Church here. The Armenian Diocese here has placed locks on all three doors of the church and the key is kept at the diocesan headquarters. “We decided to keep the doors of the church closed and not to light candles in order to avert any further tension. However, there appears to be a willingness on the part of the Georgian society to resolve the matter and the number of incendiary articles in the Georgian press has decreased,” stated Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, Primate of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Church in a conversation with “Hetq”. The Armenian Diocese of Georgia has petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Defense Committee during the past few years regarding the Nubarashen issue. It has also contacted other international organizations, representatives of diplomatic missions operating in Georgia, top ranking Georgian government officials and the Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Church, regarding the seemingly intractable problem. In December 2008, the Primate of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Church met with Temur Iakobashvili, Georgia’s State Minister on Reintegration Issues, who gave assurances that the Georgian parliament would pass through changes to the civil code during the first quarter of 2009 that would allow the Armenian Diocese of Georgia to obtain legal status as a religious institution. Regarding the Norashen, the state minister noted that the Georgian government had decided to renovate the Holy Mother of God Church with the help of Armenian specialists and that it was suggested that after the restoration work had been completed and until the ownership status of the church had been finally resolved that it be turned into a center of Christian culture, while preserving the interior and exterior historical architectural features of the church. Archbishop Mirzakhanyan stated, “We believe the main sticking point preventing the return of the churches is an extremist religious stratum within the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Diocese is inclined to believe that the Georgian authorities are leaning to a positive resolution of issues related to the Armenian Church in Georgia. However, the negative proclivities of the Georgian Church are hindering such a resolution. We have conveyed the approach of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin to the Georgian Patriarchate on the matter, which is the following – the Armenian side opposes the creation of any committee regarding the return of Norashen and the other five Armenian churches.” The Armenian Diocese of Georgia proposes the creation of a commission to clarify the ownership of churches that have been converted to Georgian ones dating from the 1990’s. Archbishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan says that all the pronouncements of the Georgian Patriarchate referring to a supposed general decision that has been reached to create a common commission don’t reflect reality.