Վրաց Ուղղափառ եկեղեցու և հայ Առաքելական եկեղեցու Վիրահայոց թեմի իրավական կարգավիճակի օրենսդրական կարգավորումը հետխորհրդային Վրաստանում

Abstract

Since independence, Georgia has not adopted a law regulating the field of religious organizations and defining their rights and obligations (“Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”). The relations between the latter and the state are regulated by a constitutional agreement approved by the Parliament as of October 22, 2002. Unlike other churches operating in Georgia, GOC is the most closed institution in the country with exceptional privileges, great economic and financial potential, the activity of which no state body can control, inspect or demand reports. Instead of passing the law on “Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, amendments to the Georgian Civil Code in 2011 allowed religious unions in the country, including the Armenian Apostolic Church, to register as a subject of public law. The mentioned changes, however, did not solve any general problem; the law did not enable the AAC Georgian Diocese to return the heritage taken away during the Soviet and post-Soviet years. The law did not regulate the mechanisms of the AAC Georgian Diocese acting as a religious organization in the field of public law; the Diocese continues to face multifarious administrative and legal problems while carrying out cultural, educational, social, charitable, office as well as activities of other nature and content.