Hovhannes Manukyan on cause of incident at Armenian Church in Tbilisi

Armenian Justice Minister Hovhannes Manukyan commented today on the cause of the incident that happened on July 19 outside Armenian Surb Etchmiadzin Church in Tbilisi.

“According to our information, an argument of an everyday nature was the cause of the conflict, but the argument then turned into a scuffle outside the Surb Etchmiadzin Church,” the justice minister said during a briefing after the government session today.

“Regardless of whether it was an everyday argument or not, there is obviously a problem related to religious and ethnic tolerance. The Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Georgian Patriarch already made respective statements in this connection,” H. Manukyan said stressing the need to promote inter-church relations and to take measures aimed at developing relations between the Armenian and Georgian peoples, bilateral diplomatic cooperation and cultural exchange.

The Georgian Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church earlier issued a statement saying that ‘around 5:00 on July 19, 2014, a planned attack motivated by ethnic and religious hatred was carried out in the yard of the Surb Etchmiadzin Church in Tbilisi”. The Diocese said about 50 people attacked priest Manuk Zeynalyan, the head of the unit for legal affairs and cooperation Levon Isakhanyan and manager Robert Isakhanyan. The three mean were beaten up and suffered injuries.