The ethnification and nationalisation of religion in the post-Soviet Georgian nation-state building process: a source of discrimination and minority rights violations?

This article discusses the growing religious nationalism in post-Soviet Georgia. It is argued that religious nationalism and the prioritisation of nation-state building are exercised at the expense of democracy and minority rights, and thus endanger national and territorial integrity. The article also aims to analyse the implementation of minority rights in Georgia which is elaborated in the context of the country's membership of the Council of Europe and international treaties to which it is a party. In this context, the deprivatisation of religion in Georgia is also discussed together with the role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the public sphere.