The Orthodox priest suspected of being behind the repeated
mob blockades of a Pentecostal church in the capital Tbilisi has denied that he
has anything to do with the protest. "I have no role in this
whatsoever," Fr David Isakadze, priest in the nearby village of Dighomi,
told Forum 18 News Service on 23 June. While police looked on, a large mob of
neighbours and self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes from further afield blockaded
Pastor Nikolai Kalutsky's church yesterday (22 June) for the fourth time since
services resumed on 27 April. Fr Isakadze, who admitted he had visited Pastor
Kalutsky's home last July "to discuss religion with him", appeared well-informed
about the protest but insisted Forum 18 was "asking the wrong
person". "You should ask the neighbours." The local police chief
has now banned the church from meeting in the Kalutsky home.
During the blockade on 15 June, Pastor Kalutsky and his wife Vera both
reported, a member of the mob telephoned a Fr David "time and again",
apparently to seek advice (see F18News 16 June 2003). Vera Kalutskaya says that
two Orthodox priests visited some neighbours on the evening of 20 June, two
days before the most recent blockade. "She thinks it was for reconnoitring
or instruction," Emil Adelkhanov of the Tbilisi-based Caucasian Institute
for Peace, Democracy and Development reports, adding that she has "no
direct evidence" that Fr Isakadze was one of them.
And, in a new development, the police chief for the Tbilisi district of
Gldani-Nadzaladevi, Temur Anjaparidze, has told Forum 18 that he will not allow
the Kalutskys to use their home as a church. "No-one is stopping them from
living there," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 23 June, "but I won't
allow them to use their home for religious services." Asked why the
Kalutskys cannot invite whom they like to their home he replied: "Five
hundred people twice a week? It's not fair on the neighbours. The neighbours
won't allow this. What can I do?" Asked whether he did not have a duty to
protect individuals and their rights, Anjaparidze angrily responded: "I
have the duty to defend the rights of all citizens, but I don't have to defend
myself before you." He then put the phone down.
On 22 June, as had happened the previous Sunday, the mob arrived in the street
where the church is located before 9 am and blockaded it with their cars,
Adelkhanov told Forum 18 from Tbilisi that day, citing information from Pastor
Kalutsky. At about 10 am some 30 Pentecostals arrived for the Sunday service
but were stopped by an outnumbering crowd of "Orthodox zealots". To
avoid a scuffle, Kalutsky asked the Pentecostals to leave, which they did.
The police came when the Pentecostals had left. They tried to persuade the
picketers to leave but they persisted, suspecting that the Pentecostals might
come back. The police also told Pastor Kalutsky that some neighbours had
complained that he preached in the street, something he denies. "We were
not ordered to disperse the mob," the police reportedly told him. "We
were ordered to see that it didn't come to blows."
Pastor Kalutsky quoted a picketer as having told him, in reference to his
Russian ethnicity: "You are a guest here. Haven't you stayed here enough?
Go wherever you like." Kalutsky responded: "Where should I go? Will
you leave us in peace if we hold our meetings on the desert shore of the
Tbilisi Sea [an artificial lake near the capital]?" The answer was, "We
won't."
Adelkhanov reports that the picketers also threatened to beat a correspondent
of Rezonansi newspaper who had written a report about the 15 June blockade.
Part of those talks took place in the presence of reporters from Mze TV who
arrived soon after the police. One of the picketers said to the cameraman:
"We do not want him to deprave our children. We do not want his children
to play with ours." While leaving, they warned, as they had done the
previous Sunday, "We'll be back." And one of them added, "This
is the last time we let you off. Next time I will stop at nothing."
The Russian-language Pentecostal church meets in a building in Kalutsky's yard.
The church insists it has to meet there as it has been barred from renting any
local buildings at affordable rates.
While Fr Isakadze admitted he had visited the Kalutsky home on 2 July last
year, Forum 18 was unable to ask him if he had led the mob raid on the house
four days later during which Kalutsky's wife Vera was concussed, leaving her in
hospital for three days. Fr Isakadze had put the phone down. On that second
occasion, a mob picketed their house for three days continuously.
In what Kalutsky describes as a "horrible year", the church had to
halt its Sunday services after 25 October, when a mob blockaded the church and
prevented Kalutsky's guests from arriving for his birthday party. "I had
to promise the police to stop our meetings for six months," Adelkhanov
quotes Kalutsky as reporting.
The church resumed its Sunday services on 27 April this year and the first four
services went off undisturbed. But the 24 May, 1 June, 15 June and 22 June
services could not take place because of the mob. "After the meeting of 1
June was foiled too, the district police promised Kalutsky not to let such
things happen again. Indeed, the meeting of 8 June went off calmly,"
Adelkhanov notes.
Asked how he knew so much about the blockade if he claimed he was not involved,
Fr Isakadze told Forum 18: "I know because parishioners of mine who live
there came and told me." While admitting that he had visited Kalutsky's
home without an invitation last July, he said it was "a lie" that
Vera Kalutskaya had been injured in the clash. And he added: "Nikolai or
whatever his name is is cynically misusing religion."
Forum 18 was unable to ask Fr Isakadze why Kalutsky and other members of his
church could not enjoy their rights to freedom of religion and freedom of
assembly as he resolutely refused to discuss the case further and had put down
the phone. Nor was Forum 18 able to ask whether he condemned the racist nature
of some of the comments addressed to Kalutsky by the mob.