Conflict over David Gareji is inspired for the internal Georgian political agenda

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- Gakharia, the Prime Minister of Georgia, has warned the local politicians raising the issue of belonging to the Azerbaijani territory the Keshikchi-Dag, where the David Gareji monastery is located. The trial continues over two cartographers accused of aiding Azerbaijan, which allegedly rejects this territory together with the monastery, is ongoing in Tbilisi.  What is the reason for the Prime Minister's warning? Why is there an escalation of the topic of the monastery in Tbilisi? Will Prime Minister Gakharia's warning be useful?

-There are two dimensions regarding the problem of David Gareji monastery. The first is that this issue is very actively used by all sorts of nationalist organizations, which have long and thoroughly be engaged in propaganda of Turkophobia and Islamophobia in Georgia. Most of them are directly related to Russia, and one of their goals is to convince Georgians that the real enemy is not Putin's Russia, but the Turkic and generally Islamic world. They do not say it directly; for some reason they do not raise topics related to Russia at all, but anti-Turkish, anti-Iranian, anti-Arab, and in general anti-Islamic statements are made constantly. Somehow, everything turns out one-sidedly for them.

The church, which positions itself as a bastion of "true Georgian" and Orthodox Christianity, also carries out active propaganda on the Gareji issue. It cannot be said that the results of the propaganda are very impressive - approximately two hundred people come to the protest actions carried out, for example, by the "Georgian March" organization, and the church, despite its formal 90% rating does not affect the real actions of the parish.

From time to time, representatives of pro-Western NGOs also make actions in the direction of David Gareji, but their activities are much less active. This is with regard to public organizations.

The second side is that the authorities themselves are actively exploiting this topic for their own internal political purposes.

In recent months, the actualization of the topic of David Gareji is 100% on the conscience of the current government, which uses this topic against the previous government. In particular, a lawsuit against cartographers who allegedly used maps on which the disputed territories are part of Azerbaijan is still ongoing. Representatives of the ruling party called them traitors, and said that because of them, part of the monastery complex ended up on the territory of Azerbaijan. The representatives of the ruling party demanded that the cartographers confess that they were following the orders of Mikhail Saakashvili, so that later they could file another lawsuit and deploy propaganda against him. These disgusting actions, which prevent a mutually beneficial solution to the problem, have been started exclusively by the current government, which thinks that the whole world revolves around Saakashvili. Kicking Saakashvili again is the only and most important task for them, for the sake of which they can do everything, even spoil relations with Azerbaijan.

Judging by the fact that Baku stubbornly does not react to this, it is obvious that it is aware of the details of Georgian politics and do not pay attention to it - and this is right. It is quite possible that even before the start of the "cartographers’ case", the Azerbaijani authorities were informed through diplomatic channels - "Don't be nervous, we will soon have a lot of noise around Gareja, but these are our internal squabbles, they will not affect you." It is likely that even the utter idiots who govern Georgia today understand that if everything continues like this, then Baku will not be able to ignore this issue endlessly. Therefore, Gakharia's statement is most likely a signal to your party - put on the brakes.

Although the interrogations in the case of the "cartographers" continue, since it is likely that they cannot immediately close the case. Most likely, it will simply be released on the brakes. All sensible people understand the subtlety of the situation, as well as the fact that this issue does not require a lot of noise, and should be resolved in the quiet of the offices, as befits the allies.

- How did the attitude of Georgians to the conflict with Ossetians and Abkhazians change under the influence of the Karabakh war-2020? How did Georgia comment on the results of the war?

- Azerbaijan's victory in Karabakh does not change anything in Georgia with regard to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. First, because Azerbaijan's opponent in Karabakh was Armenia and Russia was a player, which could make any decision. Ultimately, Moscow decided that Pashinyan's Armenia did not deserve its highest assistance, and it was not worth fighting for it with much more profitable partners - Azerbaijan and Turkey.

With regard to Georgia, everything is different - we have a direct adversary - Russia, which is actually the manager of the seized territories, and accordingly, we cannot even think of a military solution. In addition, Georgia is not as important for Russia as Azerbaijan with its oil, gas, and 84-million Turkey; respectively, Moscow it not interested to reconsider its approach to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. From this point of view, Karabakh 2020 does not change anything for Georgia.

- The results of the war-2020 and especially the paragraph of the Statement of Putin, Aliyev and Pashinyan of November 9, 2020 concerns the interests of Georgia, since a railway is opened through Azerbaijan to withdraw Armenia from the blockade. Georgia is losing its monopoly on the traffic of Armenian goods. How is this fact assessed in Georgia? Does it influence the assessment of political scientists in Tbilisi on the results of the 2020 war?

- Of course, everyone in Georgia understands that the appearance of Armenia on the transit transport market of the South Caucasus can significantly reduce the role of Georgia. The approach to this topic is twofold - first of all, the understanding that opening the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as restoring infrastructure, takes a lot of time. How it will be possible to agree on all this, how Yerevan and Baku will be able to cooperate on such issues as customs control, traffic safety along the corridor, etc., no one will tell you today. In addition, Georgia already has an existing infrastructure, which no one will give up just because there is a possibility of using a new corridor. Today there is no corridor, and it is not known when it will be.

However, everyone in Georgia, of course, understands that eventually there will be a corridor and it will be necessary to adapt to this. There is nowhere to go, we will have to accept that the transit function of Georgia will decrease over time, and this is inevitable.