Georgian Parliament Speaker: Anti-Church campaign amounts to religious war

Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili. Photo: parliament press service

On March 27, 2026, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told journalists that the Georgian Orthodox Church has been subjected to an organized discrediting campaign for the past 22 years, Georgian outlet 1TV reports. According to the politician, the target of these attacks is the institution that enjoys the greatest authority in the country.

Papuashvili described attempts to undermine the Church’s standing as a “religious war” aimed at supplanting the spiritual cornerstone that has sustained the Georgian nation for centuries. He recalled an interview Patriarch Ilia II gave in 2004, in which the primate had already warned of an anti-Church campaign organized from abroad.

“We have been watching this for 22 years now, an organized campaign against the Georgian Orthodox Church with a clear and deliberate purpose: to undermine the institution that holds the greatest authority in Georgia, [...] thereby paving the way to replace it with an ideology of their own making,” the politician said.

Papuashvili placed special emphasis on the role of EU representatives. He said that “Brussels bureaucrats and certain European leaders” are trying to turn the European Union into a kind of “pseudo-religion.” In his view, adherents of this ideology in Georgia behave in an “entirely fundamentalist” manner, employing quasi-religious rituals, codes of conduct, and slogans while allowing no criticism of Brussels. The speaker said opponents had spent years trying to discredit the Church by branding it “anti-Western” and “pro-Russian.”

The politician also directly pointed to foreign funding for those involved in attacks on the Georgian Orthodox Church. In particular, he said French foundations had financed the SovLab group, which was involved in the scandal surrounding an icon in the Holy Trinity Cathedral. He also accused the so-called Tolerance Center, funded by the EU and other foreign sources, of “outright fraud.” According to Papuashvili, the organization unlawfully appropriated constitutional terminology in order to discredit the Patriarch and the hierarchy.

“Despite the millions poured in against the Georgian people, to discredit their spiritual foundation, every last penny has been thrown to the wind,” the speaker said in conclusion. He added that when more than 1.5 million believers gathered at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Georgian society clearly showed where it truly stands.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Georgian Patriarchate had called on the public not to discuss the choice of Patriarch in the media.

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