World Bulletin / News Desk

Mufti of Georgian capital, Batum, Testkhaladze criticized Muslims and ethnic Georgian Turkish businessmen for not helping the Central Mosque, which is the only mosque in Batumi city center.

A local newspaper team, "08 Haber", in Turkey met with mufti of Batum Kemal Tsetkhaladze.

According to the report of 08 Haber, Mufti Kemal (Zurab) Testkhaladze, said that their demands and complaints are not evaluated by Turkey enough.

Mufti Testkhaladze said Georgia does not help Muslims and their support is denied, so they need Turkey's support. Mufti told the report the situation and demands of the Muslims in Georgia.

23 mosques on the verge of ruining

There is only one mosque in Batum, the Central Mosque while there are 170 mosques in the villages of Batumi, according to the report.

"Unfortunately, some of our mosques are about to be broken down. They have no imams. Because here we do not receive any salary or something. Clergymen do not receive any salary. They do not receive a penny from anyone, myself included. There is no assignment here," he said.

He said,"on this issue, Georgia State is completely keeps its hands off religion. Muslim community decides who will be the mufti. States do not interfere, do not pay. Today, 23 mosques in Keda are in ruin."

"Very angry"

He also complains of the way people coming from Turkey approach to the issues there.

"Sometimes I come across with people who are from Turkey, asking me various questions, people who criticize. Why do not you look after the mosque? Why is there is no call to prayer? I get very angry with them. Once they are not sincere, they do nothing but criticize. Here is not Turkey, it is Georgia ... This is a state of Georgia that has its own laws and parliament," he said.

"I think there is no one left in Turkey that I did not knock doors of. There were promises. There were ones who said yes, but no results yet. I have given a lot of interviews. No results. Zero results. Nothing changed. Sometimes I say to myself I should not speak with the media anymore," he stated in the interview.

Firsts in Batum

He also told the report his contributions to Georgian way of Islamic living.

"I'm the one who started some firsts in Batum and the Islamic world, one of them to perform marriages in a mosque. With the condition of be the wedding day and with marriage licence, I perform marriage ceremonies for young couples who come to the mosque with the wedding dress and wedding gowns. I also wrote mevlid in Georgian, my own writing. Our fathers used to understand Arabic, and it was read in Arabic. But today no one understands Arabic or Ottoman, so we read Georgian mevlid. It became very popular and is loved," he explained.

No Haj from Batum

Batum this year were unable to send any pilgrims to Mecca. Mufti said this is because people do not have the money.

"In 2007, we were able to send 9 pilgrims. Why would I tell you this? Because, I want to tell everyone about the hard conditions of Muslims living in Adjara. Religious service cannot be given with words. Many mosques are idle due to money problems," he said.

Central mosque 130 years old

During the communist years, all places of worship there were closed and all archives of these places disappeared.

"Now we do not know clearly about the history of the Central Mosque. We know for certain is that this mosque is 130 years old. We are currently doing renovations. Turks and Muslims in here gave cement, sand, made the doors were built," he said.

Batumi is composed of five districts, Hulo-Keda-Helvaçavri and Shvaevi-Kobileti.

These districts have total number of 170 mosques. However, 23 of them are empty and in difficult situations.

Mufti calls for urgent support and help from Muslim businesspeople. "We do not have religious organizations here, so we have to do whatever to be done. If we cannot, no one can," he said.