TBILISI, DFWatch – The Georgian parliament asks the international community to help keep a watch on the restoration work planned at several historical sites in Abkhazia.

This comes a few days after Alexander Ankvab, de facto president of Abkhazia, spoke about an initiative to conduct restoration works on medieval churches in Bedia, Mokvi and other places.

Davit Bakradze, Georgian Speaker of Parliament, says that if this is only about restoration of Georgian historic monuments, then it’s just an initiative to be welcomed. However, the Speaker suspects that during restoration work it is planned to remove Georgian historical traces from the monuments.

As an example he named The Church of St George at Ilori. A painting on the church wall was partially lost because of incorrectly conducted restoration works and recently Abkhazia admitted this fact. The same problem exists is regards to Bedia Cathedral.

Davit Bakradze called for the Foreign Relations Committee to prepare a statement to international organizations, requesting their and UNESCO’s involvement in the restoration works on Georgian cultural monuments in Abkhazia.

“We are ready to participate in this process,” Bakradze said.