Georgia patriarch a voice for calm

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------By Michael Schwirtz Published: November 15, 2007
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TBILISI, Georgia: When Georgia's short democratic experiment seemed near collapse last week amid a commotion of flying tear gas canisters, rocks and rubber bullets, the nation's leaders, their opponents, and the Georgian people looked to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, head of Georgia's Orthodox Church.

The patriarch addressed the nation on television, calling for an end to the violence and opening the churches as a refuge. And when the violence subsided, he offered his services as mediator between the government and the opposition.

"If there is anything in this country that can be a guarantor of security, it is the patriarch," Tina Khidasheli, of the opposition Republican Party, said in an interview days after a government-imposed state of emergency shut down independent media and curtailed political rights. "No one else has any authority anymore."

As leader of a near 2,000-year-old religious tradition, the patriarch has been a unifying force through 30 years of political turmoil, poverty and war, even as one revolution after another, peaceful or otherwise, has toppled the nation's political leaders.

Though criticized on occasion for intolerance toward religious diversity, the patriarch at the age of 74 enjoys enormous popularity in this mostly Orthodox Christian country of 4.6 million, where social problems and continued corruption have eaten away at the high public support President Mikheil Saakashvili enjoyed when he came to power in 2003.

As police and protesters clashed, and members of the government and opposition hurled insults last week, the patriarch entered the political fracas, going on television last Wednesday with a call for calm, while criticizing the conflicting parties as a father rebukes unruly children.

"Our people are not accustomed to being treated in such an insulting way," the patriarch said in an interview on Tuesday at his opulent residence here in Georgia's capital.

"I appeared on television to say that these methods cannot be used to solve problems," he said. "Thanks to God, dialogue is now underway."

As the patriarch spoke, Tbilisi's churches were opened to people seeking refuge from tear gas and police batons. Several hundred gathered in the basement of the Sameba Cathedral, a soaring, gold-domed edifice that commands this ancient city, and held an all-night vigil with the priests.

The patriarch acted similarly in April 1989, urging antigovernment protesters, in vain, it turned out, to seek shelter in churches as Soviet troops advanced on downtown Tbilisi. At least 20 demonstrators died and thousands were wounded when the soldiers attacked.

This time, the police, some of whom had beaten unarmed civilians, halted in the cathedral's shadow.

"No civilized country in the world" would send police into a church, said Shota Utiashvili, director of the Department of Analysis at the Interior Ministry, though he justified the police crackdown as necessary to restore order.

Following the violence, the patriarch presided over the first meeting of representatives from the government and the opposition, calling for reconciliation and offering his blessing for continued negotiations. He also met with foreign diplomats.

For now, the streets of Tbilisi are calm. [The Georgian Parliament formally approved a measure Wednesday to end the state of emergency on Friday at 7 p.m. Leaders of the opposition said in interviews that they did not plan to mount protests against the government in the coming days, saying that they needed time to regroup.]

Both sides have vowed to fight their next battle at the presidential polls on January 5.

"I think that the course Georgia has taken is in the direction of democracy," the patriarch said. "This has not changed and will continue."

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