To hang on to the places of worship towards the Georgian area, Tbilisi have suggested offering Azerbaijan a confirmed in public unspecified section out of Georgian house around the Azerbaijani border
An unresolved edging anywhere between Georgia and you can Azerbaijan has actually put below concern 
one of the South Caucasus’s biggest social and you will religious attractions, brand new gothic David-Gareja monastery advanced, located in Georgia and you will Azerbaijan.
Invest partial-wilderness specific 70 miles southeast out-of Tbilisi along the Georgian border that have Azerbaijan and you will in this Azerbaijan proper, the fresh cutting-edge, which has a wealthy line of cavern frescoes, might have been a web page to own conflict and also for contemplation, since design began regarding the 6th century.
Most monasteries, some nearly inaccessible and you can largely destroyed, also are on Georgian territory. Azerbaijan gets the monastery from Bertubani, which includes frescoes of legendary twelfth-13th century Georgian Queen Tamara and her boy, Giorgi IV.
However, who is always to manage this new David-Gareja monastery? In the event that Soviet Partnership outlined the fresh new limitations between the then Soviet republics out-of Azerbaijan and you may Georgia, the newest monastery complex is broke up in two. The edging among them now separate regions have stayed undamaged because the 1991. The main border passes through the top of the brand new 813-meter-large Udabno ridge (identified during the Azerbaijan as the Keshishdag), hence slots cavern monasteries to your the better and just have towards the northern (Georgian-controlled) and you can southern area (Azerbaijani-controlled) hills.
Brand new monastery cutting-edge, which includes encountered episodes of the Tamerlane and Shah Abbas equivalent, holds strategic benefit both for Azerbaijan and Georgia. In the Udabno ridge, each other Azerbaijani and you can Georgian area can easily be monitored. “Regarding military perspective, it standing features importance for nations,” said Uzeir Jafarov, an independent Azerbaijani military specialist from inside the Baku and a retired colonel. “Theoretically, in the example of armed forces dispute, the medial side hence possess command over these types of levels becomes a appealing factor.”
Edging talks, ongoing as 1991, has just reentered the news when Zviad Dzidziguri, a beneficial Georgian person in parliament on the opposition Traditional Party, and chairman of your Democratic Front side faction, claimed that Azerbaijan got moved its edging with Georgia in order that one of many complex’s monasteries, Chichkhituri, try now inside Azerbaijani territory, getting at stake the rest monasteries significantly less than Georgian handle.
The latest Georgian international ministry keeps declined brand new declaration. In the a job interview that have EurasiaNet, a premier-peak Azerbaijani State Border Handle Services formal, whom requested to keep private, together with reported that Azerbaijan had never ever moved their border. Yet ,, still, the latest argument continues.
A knowledgeable-understood area of the complex, the brand new Udabno cavern monastery, that have frescoes relationship just as much as regarding eighth towards the 13th centuries, while the monastery head office from the Lavra, are found inside Georgia
“The we must would is to get a familiar language with your Azerbaijani acquaintances,” Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Manigaladze, whom manages the official Percentage with the Edging Delimitation and you may Demarcation, told journalists inside the Tbilisi toward October 31.
“There is absolutely no area for territorial replace [which have Georgia]. There are no dealings more this dilemma,” Deputy International Minister Khalaf Khalafov, co-chairman of one’s intergovernmental commission with the border delimitation with Georgia, said from the a push briefing within the Baku into the November 2. Azerbaijani authorities declare that prior to now 3 years Georgia enjoys twice provided areas of Georgian territory in exchange for identification of the current border office of the David-Gareja monastery, but you to definitely Baku keeps denied the fresh new offers one another moments.
“So it region [Azerbaijan’s part of the monastery] have strategic characteristics to possess Azerbaijan. So we do not have intention of providing they so you can somebody,” Garib Mammadov, president of your Azerbaijani Condition Residential property and you will Cartography Committee, told you in a job interview to the Azerbaijani day-after-day newspaper Echo. “This is a strategic neglect. The entire Southern Caucasus might be monitored from this overlook most really. Why would i provide it with aside?”