Reputation of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and Mistake made by Thomas de Waal



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.





[1]http://www.geotimes.ge/archive/index.php?m=home&newsid=61266&lang=geo.
[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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