Prof. dr. Tariel
Putkaradze
Reputation of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia
II
and
Mistake made by Thomas de Waal
According to all surveys having been conducted since
the XX century, his Holiness and Beatitude, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, the Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Metropolitan bishop of
Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia Ilia II remains to be an unrivaled leader for the Georgian
population: he is the most popular and reliable person for the citizens of
Georgia; for instance, according the
survey conducted by NDI before the period between July 23 and August 7 in 2014,
the approval rating of the Patriarch of All Georgia reached 91 per cent.
The following
three places are occupied by politicians[1].
Moreover, according to the American research, the
highest percentage of trust is granted to the head of the Georgian Orthodox
Church, Catholicos-Patriarch of
All Georgia Ilia II by the population of the post-soviet
countries[2].
I have an intensive personal relationship with
Georgians living in Iran, Turkey and Russia and I can confirm that like
Georgian citizens, the majority of autochthon Georgians living in other states,
descendants of those exiled by Shah Abbas and Giorgi Saakadze in Iran, descendants of Muhajirs and new migrants grant
full trust to the current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and they call him the caring father
of the Georgian nation.
I
regard that apart from the Patriarch’s personal traits (kindness, warm-heartedness, constant exposure of his positive energy;
forgiveness, steadiness and in-depth analysis; amazing calmness…), such a
high level of trust is determined by several other circumstances, particularly
the following ones:
1. In the existing political, geopolitical and socio-economic situation, distrust of the population towards the
political figures with no ideology; the majority of politicians have
repeatedly changed leaders and their outlook, consequently, during the
elections, people have to choose between something bad and worse; and this
distrust is becoming bigger and bigger;
2. For the last 25 years, a large part of the representatives of the
intellectual circles have turned into lobbyists or ‘fog leaf’ of this or that political group; correspondingly, people
show less trust towards the so-called celebrities;
3. The trust towards his Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II is also
strengthened by the following fact: The current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia managed not only to
preserve the unity of the Georgian church during the period of severe attacks
but also to revive it;
4. The Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia tends to be particularly
attentive towards Muslim Georgians; he regards nationality to be the basic
personal trait.
Such kind of attitude and
remarkably tolerant character of the Patriarch bring up his Georgian
nationality and not his different affiliation among Muslim Georgians; the
consequence of this kind of attitude is the fact that lately, several Georgians living in Iran named their children Ilia
after the Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.
5. Catholicos-Patriarch f All Georgia sincerely and with ultimate tolerance
tries to cooperate with all political figures as well as the authority. However,
he is not reluctant to reprimand them in critical situations. At the same time,
Catholicos-Patriarch represents the choice of both the majority of the Georgian
population as well as the historical choice of the Georgian church[3],
he officially declares that the European family is a natural choice of
Georgia; for instance, on May 19, 2015, at the meeting with the Austria
president Heinz Fischer Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II declared:
‘Georgia has made an European choice: Georgia aspires to become the part and
member of the European democratic structures. Georgia’s European choice is firm
and we will definitely achieve this[4].
Unfortunately, the west
has access to a lot of incorrect information about the Catholicos-Patriarch’s
European choice; for instance, a well-known expert on Caucasian issues Thomas
de Waal regards that Patriarch does not support the development of
close relations of our country with the west and he claims that his Holiness is
the symbol of the old Georgia [1]. But actually, Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia Ilia II is interested in speeding up the process of
Georgia’s European integration; e.g. at the meeting with EU
Commissioner Stefan Fule, he declared:
‘I hope that the processes that are
now unfolding in Europe, Ukraine, once again demonstrates that the integration
cannot be postponed into the distant future[5].
6. Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia constantly tries to
promote Georgia and talented Georgians abroad; he welcomes the
representatives of those countries which can support Georgia in difficult
situation while being the center of geopolitical division.
7. This infinite trust of the Georgian nation towards the Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia is supported by his epistles and preaching where he highlights inevitability of the revival of the
territorial and ethnolinguistic unity of Georgia; an interesting step have been
taken in this direction: Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia created a new treaty of the Iberian unity (2011); this kind
of activity is essential in conditions of information
war waged against Georgia while its national (ethnolinguistic) is under
serious threat.
[2]http://www.interpressnews.ge/ge/sazogadoeba/213475-ilia-meore-gamokithkhvebis-mikhedvith-yofil-sabtcotha-qveynebs-shoris-saqarthvelos-marthlmadidebel-eklesias-da-patriarqs-yvelaze-metad-endobian.html?ar=A.
[3] On the discussion
of the historical European choice of the Georgian church, see: Tariel
Putkaradze, Georgian Church from the Historical and Geopolitical Point of View
/Old and New Mistakes of the Major Geopolitical Players in Georgia/ http://orientacia.blogspot.com/2013/10/blog-post_2571.html?spref=bl.
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