After Patriarch’s Funeral, Ruling Party Accuses Opponents of ‘Anti-Church Campaign’

2026-03-28 - 12:31

Georgian Dream officials have accused opponents and critics of waging an “anti-Church campaign” aimed, among other things, at discrediting senior clergy and the late Patriarch Ilia II, days after the widely-revered leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church was laid to rest in a funeral that drew tens of thousands. In TV appearances following the funeral, party leaders, including GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, claimed that opposition politicians, non-governmental organizations, foreign critics, and even the European Union had for years sought to undermine Georgia’s Orthodox Church and its late leader, a campaign they say continued even after the Patriarch’s death. “They are generally fighting against authorities,” Kobakhidze said in his first interview since Ilia II’s passing with pro-government Imedi TV. He said the “fake ideology” is being deployed against authorities globally, without specifying a source. He argued the high approval enjoyed by the Orthodox Church and its late leader made them “one of the main targets” of such campaigns locally. He added, however, that these campaigns are doomed to fail in Georgia. “These days have shown us that there is an overwhelming public majority for whom values, principles, traditions, the Church, and the state are dear, and an overwhelming minority that not only distances itself from all of this but engages in what was once called militant atheism during the Bolshevik period,” Kobakhidze told Imedi on March 25. Kobakhidze particularly lashed out at NGOs, saying they “spared no word of condolences” for the late Patriarch, claiming it was because they serve a “dark deed,” a part of which, he suggested, is “the fight against the Church, state institutions, and all kinds of authorities.” He also slammed opposition politicians and foreign critics, accusing them of the same. The GD PM said it would be “politically very advantageous” to offer condolences, but added, “These are agents – foreign and local politicians representing an agent network. How could an NGO, or any politician in the country or abroad, declare condolences to the Georgian people over the patriarch’s death when they know they will have to take part in a campaign against the Church tomorrow?” A number of foreign officials and embassies offered condolences to Georgia following Ilia II’s passing. Kobakhidze also said that “one of the main goals” of the “transparency law,” the GD-dubbed name for the Foreign Agents Law, was to “halt the campaign against the Church.” He added, “It took us so much effort to slow down this campaign. Approximately four to five years ago, this campaign was at its peak intensity, and we had to expose it.” Kobakhidze’s claims were echoed the following night by Shalva Papuashvili during an interview on the same program. Claiming that “there are forces that see their competition in the Church,” Papuashvili extended his accusations to the European Union, saying that “a kind of pseudo-religion is being created [...] whose natural competition is the Church...There is an attempt to replace the Church with this pseudo-religious movement.” He added, “We see the Brussels bureaucracy using methods of pseudo-religion to exert ideological influence over different countries and societies, and the Church is a natural competition for them.” In a March 26 Facebook post sharing the late patriarch’s 2004 interview where Ilia II speaks of the “anti-Church campaign” and globalisation in that regard, Papuashvili claimed, “The patriarch speaks of those foreign forces that do not wish for a strong Church in Georgia.” “And if the Church does not place itself in the service of their globalist agenda, they will try to destroy it – through division, discrediting, insults, and by labeling it anti-Western or pro-Russian,” Papuashvili said. “They give these processes fake names – ‘civil society’ – invent fake ideologies – ‘gender identity’ – and present themselves as unconditional progress, a priori admirable and a savior,” he added. “They are offering a world in which non-governmental organizations elected by no one stand above the people’s will, where fashionable theories take precedence over tradition, and temporary ideologies are placed above faith.” Also Read: 22/03/2026 – Obituary | Ilia II – The Man Who Reinvented the Church 21/03/2026 – Kobakhidze Visits Hungary, Meets Orbán, Addresses CPAC