Mobilizing homophobic feelings on the political ground falls within the interests of our ill-disposed neighbor – Soso Tsiskarishvili

 

InterPressNews sat down with the Independent Expert Club President, Soso Tsiskarishvili, to discuss acute issues of Georgia’s internal and external policy.

- Our Patriarch, His Holiness and Beatitude, Ilia II, blessed May 17 by declaring it as the day of family solidity and overarching respect towards parents; the 17 May protest rallies took place peacefully; however, the congregation did not hide its overt dissatisfaction over the recently enacted anti-discrimination law, and in the wake of this, they did not hesitate to use this demonstration for political purposes. How would you evaluate the Patriarch’s decision to consecrate 17 May by declaring it as the day of family solidity and respect towards parents?

- I do think that the Patriarch’s aforementioned decision is a visible manifestation of the all-embracing wisdom that resulted in reconciling the issue by turning the ominous day into a day of solidarity and peace. I do welcome “the birth of this red-letter day” and our sage Patriarch’s decision to put it on our calendar – as you know, for Georgians the family is a holy institution that must be upheld under any circumstances. And especially in light of the fact that each family may include the representatives of different sexual orientation, the Patriarch’s decision seems extremely rational.

- The people who are malcontented with the newly-enacted anti-discrimination law are crusading against the fact that the law entitles LGBTs to openly and freely express their opinion. Can we presume that by laying the foundation for the day of family solidity, the Church hinted to the representatives of the sexual minorities that they have forfeited their right to hold protest events at Rustaveli AVE in the future too?

-- I would not release such an unconditional statement. First of all, our public must be endowed with due information regarding the representatives of sexual minorities, their manner of life, whether or not this deviation is an innate feature or some kind of “whim”. Needless to say, that the Georgian people are not really distinguished from the representatives of other countries because of their, let’s say, determination to grapple with LGBTs.

However, the Georgian people have expressed a really serious protest against LGBTs; while as per the universally accepted legislation, banning people from freely express their opinions is inadmissible throughout our day-to-day civilized world. They are entitled to take certain measures against their attempts to somehow propagate this practice; they do not have right to publicly affront or assault these people though. Our public must bear in mind that nature itself has rendered a final verdict by destining this part of our society to be the members of the minority.

And the more access our people will have to the scientific basis, the more they will be versed in this issue, the more easily they will manage to draw a line between the inborn feature and debauchery as some people call homosexuality. That is why our duty is to pass all the necessary information to those representatives of our public who see a tragedy in enlisting their brothers in the ranks of LGBTs.

-As you know, the parish has also staged a protest rally against the anti-discrimination law at Rustaveli AVE. They urged those at the helm of the parliament to abrogate the bill. In your opinion, at what may point Tengiz Kitovan’s appearance among the protesters and his announcement as per which this is only the beginning, and the parliament must be disbanded.

-- I will find it really cumbersome to prove that Mr. Kitovani is not inclined to defend Orthodoxy; neither do I think he symbolizes the orthodox truth; anyway, while dealing with him, I have never noticed such kind of inclination to this man.

And we must definitely differentiate the basis of the position held by Levan Vasadze on the one hand, and by Tengiz Kitovani, on the other hand. The statement regarding the necessity to dismiss the parliament from these two men has really surprised me; their motives for issuing one and the same statement are, by all odds, different though. Thus, we, the Georgian people, must not look at this issue from one angle only; we must definitely bear in mind that this issue is a constituent element of the plan outlined by our northern neighbor, the plan, which aims to throw the country into the state of anarchy, to upset our people and curb the aspiration of the majority of Georgians to progress and advancement.

I found Mr. Kitovani’s statement “my boys are everywhere” really strange. I have exerted an all-out effort and did not manage to pinpoint the whereabouts of “his boys,” though; neither did I manage to figure out who these boys are. Delivering public speeches is definitely not in Mr. Kitovani’s blood, and this is not really his strong point; on top of that, the public does not know what he does in Russia…

- Georgia has left the era of “brethren”, “my boys”, and “street guys” long ago. At what Mr. Kitovani’s statement may point? Could he be moved by a desire to drag Georgia back to the past?

- Precisely this is the reason why I do state that the identification of the so called “my boys” is a must. We must pin them down for further details regarding their ideology, principles etc.

- It is hard to believe, but both the clergy and their parish find it hard to set an example of tolerance. Considering that the rhetoric of those opposing the anti-discrimination law amounts to “Europe is a hive of depravity while Russia is a sanctuary”, it is nothing but the ideological subversion of Georgia. It does not take scrutiny to understand that their beliefs hold a grain of truth, but where do they stem from? Could it be, from a purely political point of view, that they are founded solely on marketability of homophobia?

- Like everything in this transient world, homophobia is not derived out of thin air; it has its preconditions. By all odds, mobilizing homophobic feelings on the political ground falls within the interests of our ill-disposed neighbor. Why hide the fact that in the ranks of our religious figures there are people who comply with the directions of others and these people are obviously not moved by religious motives while doing this.

You probably remember that last year, in May, they issued the list of those police officers which served as ecclesiastic servants for years and which were compelled to pursue the Prosecutor’s Office’s interests within the penitentiary system… Last year, the information as per which the representatives of the Interior Ministry were involved in cooperation with the religious figures passed upon us. . . And, thus, if the Church is not purged of the priest and ecclesiastic servants with suspicious inclinations, we will never attain the goal to redeem our sins and strive to push our fellow-citizens to redemption as well.

I will put it straight that I have also repeatedly raised the necessity of holding snap parliamentary elections; however, having found out that these people have the same demand, I changed my position and convinced myself that we must give credit to the members of the parliament who have succeeded in achieving a consensus regarding the anti-discrimination law; and now I think that they must stay within the parliament until their term expires.

If within the legislative body they decide to scrutinize the details of this anti-discrimination law, they’d better take this step in September. Doing this in June will not really be auspicious for us; as for September, each member of our society can publicly express his/her opinion; while doing this, we must be oriented on facts and only facts though.

- From your viewpoint what role does the Church play in our political life? Some people maintain that enacting the anti-discrimination law on the eve of elections will inflict serious harm on the “Dream” Government…

- The only thing paramount for us today is to ward threats off from our country; as for the Government, it must be apt to protect its own interests via lawful means. And I do think that the Georgian Dream Coalition will succeed in realizing this objective.

If our neighbor state manages to exhibit us a totally undemocratic nation, if its succeeds in making the West turn back on us and spurn the landmark deal, we will definitely find ourselves in an impasse; as after this, nothing will thwart Russia in carrying out a military strike against Georgia. Plus, any anarchy and disorder in our country will be the pretext in Russia’s hands, which it will use to implement military operations here. Moreover, please keep in mind that I have issued this statement on the bases of extremely reliable information that naturally aims to wake the entire Georgia up and make it face up to the existing reality.

Koba Bendeliani

InterPressNews