These days is being held a visit of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II to Russia. In South Ossetia the attitude towards Ilya II is adequate to his attitude to South Ossetia. Correspondent of IA "Res" asked the Presidential Envoy of South Ossetia on post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev to comment on the visit.
- The current Georgian elite is fighting for an external orientation. Some forces in the interests of their state are trying to alleviate Georgia's relations with Russia. Apparently, Ilia II is now supporting these forces or pretends to support them.
You have said correctly about the attitude of people of South Ossetia towards the head of the Georgian church - it is adequate to his attitude to South Ossetia . Ilia II cannot pronounce (apparently on inner spiritual conviction), the word of South Ossetia and continues to call us "Samachablo" (the term was introduced into the political turn in times of Gamsakhurdia in Georgia for greater insulting of the Ossetians).
Ilia II faithfully served the ideas of Gamsakhurdia and Saakashvili (at least the early). Here are just a few examples. Georgian church blessed and participated in the first Georgian attack on Tskhinval November 23, 1989, organized by the "round table" led by Gamsakhurdia. In the 1990s, when there was Georgian aggression against South Ossetia, when throughout the whole Georgia were being expelled and killed non-Georgians, Ilia II issued an emergency order
"A killer of every Georgian, despite the guilt and innocence of the victim (the killed), is declared an enemy of the Georgian people."
Ilia II often speaks of the "return" of the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and when he blessed the new Georgian flag in 2004, introduced by Saakashvili and his entourage, he expressed the hope that soon the flag would be flying over Sukhum and Tskhinval. Isn`t it a blessing the campaign against South Ossetia in 2008?
The Georgian Patriarch also reiterated that Nagorno Karabakh "was and will remain a part of Azerbaijan." But is it the Christian zeal of love for people? Or he judges the Christian values in the light of the Georgians and their interests.
