On January 24, 2019, in Tbilisi City Court, the final hearing on the issue of Tandoyants St. Astvatsatsin (Tandoyants Holy Mother of God) church took place chaired by judge Nana Chichileishvili. The Armenian Diocese in Georgia had initiated a lawsuit against the National Agency of Public Registry of Georgia.
Authorized representatives of both the plaintiff and the respond were in attendance. The representative of the Ministry of Economy, according to the judge's statement, did not come for uncertain reasons. The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church was present as a third party.
Judge Nana Chichileishvili, hearing the plaintiff and the respondents, mentioned that a long time was provided to the parties to represent their arguments, and after a thorough analyze of circumstances of the case, the court made a decision on the permissibility of the lawsuit initiated by the Armenian Diocese in Georgia on the issue of Tandoyants St. Astvatsatsin. The court decided to reject the permission of discussion of the lawsuit initiated by the Armenian Diocese in Georgia on the issue of Tandoyants St. Astvatsatsin.
After the court verdict is announced, the Armenian Diocese in Georgia will take steps to present the issue at the other court instances.
From the story of the issue: the dispute is connected with the legitimacy of the transferring the historical Armenian Tandoyants Church (the address: Aghmashenebeli, 38) to the ownership of the Georgian Patriarchate. The Armenian Diocese in Georgia has repeatedly appealed to the authorities to return the church, but applications addressed to the state bodies were remained unanswered.
The interests of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Holy Church in Georgia were protected by the lawyers of Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI) and Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC).