Georgian Orthodox Church-led Protest

Thousands of people marched in downtown Tbilisi over the weekend in demonstrations, led by the Georgian Orthodox Church, marking what appears to be one of the most serious showdowns between the Patriarchate and President Saakashvili’s administration. Source of confrontation is legislative amendment on religious minorities’ legal status, but what further fueled dispute is the process itself through which the amendment was done – the process in which the Georgian Orthodox Church felt to be “humiliated” as its calls on the authorities not to hurry with the decision went unheeded.