On 15 January, Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia called for relious tolerance in the country following the clash between Christians and Muslim communities in the Guria region.

“We will not allow anyone to restrict the rights of Georgian citizens in any way, but we will also not allow anyone to provoke a confrontation between our citizens on religious grounds through illegal actions,” he stated. “Georgia has always been proud of its religious diversity. This is the wealth of our country, one of the foundations of its strength, which we have always been careful about. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution. Religious services and rituals are the right of our citizens and no one can restrict them,” he emphasised. The same message was expressed by the country’s President Salome Zourabichvili.

On 12 January, a violent clash between Christians and Muslims broke out in the Buknari village in the Chokhatauri Municipality when local Christians protested local Muslims using a house they had purchased as a place to gather and pray, where three members of Georgia’s Muslim community were wounded. After the clash erupted, the Mayor of the Chokhatauri Municipality Irakli Kuchava underlined that Georgia is a secular state, but that the prayer service should have been organised in a religious building with “an agreement and in line with the law.” “There’s a controversy over a prayer house in the village. There have been meetings during the last three weeks and we are trying to solve this issue optimally,” Kuchava added.

After Kuchava’s comments, the Tbilisi-based rights group EMC reminded authorities in Guria that believers did not have to hold prayers in a specially designated building and were free to congregate and hold religious rituals in a private home. EMC also stated that groups do not need an additional permit as long as related construction was not planned. The Georgian Muslims' Union called the recent attack in the village of Buknari “extremely alarming” adding that it “reflected the government’s attitude towards religious minorities” and that it “encourages more crime in the country.” 

The country’s Public Defender Nino Lomjaria agreed with the sentiment, noting on 12 January that the “very unfortunate” incident in Buknari was a “vivid example” of the discriminatory treatment of Muslims in Georgia. It was the seventh Christian-Muslim dispute/anti-Muslim incident in the country in recent years.