Goergian Armenians concerned over imminent loss of their identity

GEORGIAN ARMENIANS CONCERNED OVER IMMINENT LOSS OF THEIR IDENTITY
ArmenPress
June 8 2004
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS: Some 1,500 residents of an
Armenian-populated village of Poga, in Georgia’s Ninotsminda region,
are collecting signatures under a petition, which they want to send
to the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin II, to ask for
his assistance in maintaining, as they say “their national identity”
in the face of the expanding presence of the Orthodox Georgian Church.
The village is home to two semi-destroyed Armenian churches. One of
them acted before the establishment of the Soviet rule, the second
is being now repaired by the Georgian church.
The residents are going to ask Catholicos to help build a new church
for them. The village is one of the biggest Armenian-populated
settlements in the south of Georgia.