Georgian Ambassador Summoned to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan summoned Georgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze on July 15 amid an incident at Davit Gareji monastery complex, the Azerbaijani media reports.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has released a statement on the incident at Azerbaijani-Georgia border.

“On July 14, 2019, Georgia's ambassador to Azerbaijan was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the fact that a group of persons from Georgia violated the state border and attacked the border guard service near the caves in the Keshikchi Dag nature reserve in Azerbaijan and insulted them. An appropriate explanation was requested from him.

Unfortunately, we are convinced that such actions are totally contrary to the spirit of strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Georgia and we regard it as a provocation aimed at confrontation between the two countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan has demanded from the other party to investigate this incident and inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relevant actions and the work done", the statement reads.

According to the statement released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, there was a "small incident" between locals and Azerbaijani border guards on the Davit-Gareji section, though the situation was defused timely and now is "calm on the ground."

On July 14, information was spread through social media that the situation was tense at David Gareji. Namely, public activists said that Azerbaijani border guards took icons from the Monastery and handed them to Georgian guards, signifying that the territory no longer belongs to the Georgian side. Locals then forced the Azerbaijani border guards from the territory. Now public activists claim that the situation is calm at David Gareji.

The situation at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border has been tense over the last several months amid negotiations between Georgia and Azerbaijan on the border, which has not been agreed upon since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.

Related story: MIA: Situation is Calm at Davit Gareji Monastery Complex

By Ana Dumbadze