Forced Migration and Human Security in the Eastern Orthodox World

Abstract

Georgian state faced a threat of territorial collapse after the Russian invasion in August 2008. A five-day war accompanied by Russia’s unilateral recognition of independence of the two Georgian break-away territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia put the Georgian government under an existential pressure. To rebuild public morale and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of disappointed electorate the Saakashvili government opted to seek an alliance with the most trusted public institution – Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). This alliance manifested itself in two-fold increase in state’s funding of GOC after the war, immense donations of movable and immovable property and luxurious gifts to church officials (Metreveli 2016). Certain conditionality attached to these practices of clientelism was an assumption on behalf of the Georgian ruling elites that church will collaborate with the government in (re)building civic (territorial) nationalism in defence of Georgia’s contested sovereignty. Despite government’s efforts, the discourses of civic/territorial nationalism (e.g. ongoing occupation, creeping borderization of Georgia) did not trigger any large-scale protest inside the GOC against Russian policy towards Georgia after war. The chapter focuses on three largest protests led and organised by GOC during the last 10 years (from August 2008 to August 2018): The Law on Registration of Religious Minority Organizations (2011), the Law on Self-governance (2013) and violent rally against LGBTI activists on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on 17th of May. In all instances, GOC justified massive mobilization as a response to the threat to “Georgianness, Georgian identity and family values.” Against this background this chapter asks why does GOC interpret religious, gender or sexual liberties as more threatening to “Georgianness” than Russia’s ongoing borderization policy under which Georgia lost 151 settlements (135 in Tskhinvali region and 16 in Kodori Valley) since the end of 2008 war? To address this question, the chapter triangulates between legal and policy analysis, interviews with clergy and state officials and content analysis of public statements of the church officials.