"There are no laws in Georgia currently that regulate the activities of religious organizations," Bishop Khachatryan said, adding that there is a clause in the Georgian Constitution that states that the government is responsible for guaranteeing freedom of action for religios organizations. "If there is no legislation, the church doesn’t have the right to obtain official status," noted the archbishop. He stated that Catholicos Garegin II has raised the issue whenever high-ranking Georgian officials visited Etchmiadzin and that much correspondence on this and other matters has been exchanged, all with little tangible result.