The Udabno Monastery is located on our territory and this action means forcible occupation of the monastery, novitiate Zaza told InterPressNews in Davit Gareji. He said the situation has been calmed down for the time being, but an incident took place yesterday between the Azeri border guards and locals. He said that the Azeri border guards took out icons from the monastery and handed them over to the Georgian border guards.

“This misunderstanding was created after the Azeri border guards took out the icons from the temples. Obviously, people were concerned over this fact, but such things will always happen and the problem remain unsolved until the monastery is opened and everyone are allowed to walk there freely,” novitiate Zaza said.

According to him, the monastery must be opened and people must be allowed to enter it as soon as possible.

“There is a map, established by Shevardnadze [ ex-president of Georgia] and Aliyev [ex-president of Azerbaijan] is the only official map the Georgian-Azeri sides must guide during the negotiations,” novitiate Zaza said.