By Asbarez | Tuesday, 16 February 2016
TBILISI (News.am) — 79 mosques were returned to the Muslim community of Georgia since 2014 as well as 12 synagogues and one church building to the Jewish community and Evangelical Protestant Church respectively.
However, neither in 2014 nor in 2015 did the Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese of Georgia get back any of its church buildings illegally seized by the Soviet authorities. This becomes evident from the information included in the report of the Georgian State Religious Affairs Agency, Yerkramas reports.
In 2015, 3,500,000 lari were allocated to the religious organizations from the state budget as a financial compensation. The Muslim community, the Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese in Georgia and the Jewish community got 2,200,000, 600,000 and 300,000 lari respectively. The Catholic community got 400,000 lari. These amounts are allocated to compensate the damage caused by the Soviet authorities.
“In 2015, 35 mosque buildings in Adjara were returned to the Muslim community. The Jewish community got back 5 synagogues (altogether 12 synagogues since 2015). The church building located in Gori city was returned to the Evangelic Protestant Church. The land in Batumi city has been handed over to the Armenian Apostolic Church Diocese in Georgia for the construction of a religious and educational center,” the report reads.
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