Georgia Denies Allegations on Mistreatment of Iranian Citizen
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, August 20
The Georgian Foreign Ministry released a special statement on Saturday and stated that no fact of mistreatment, including outraging the religious feelings, of Iranian citizens at Tbilisi International Airport was confirmed.
The statement came shortly after the Iranian Embassy in Tbilisi sent a protest note to the Georgia foreign ministry over mistreatment of an Iranian woman wearing Hijab at the security checkpoints of Tbilisi international airport.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi announced this in response to a question on reports that a female passenger of Tbilisi-Isfahan flight had been asked by the Tbilisi airport security to remove her Hijab.
Qasemi said after receiving the news, the Iranian ambassador to Georgia called some of the passengers to make sure of the authenticity of the reports and then sent a “strongly-worded” protest note to the Georgian foreign ministry and the airport security police.
“The Georgian authorities have also been asked to pursue the matter and prevent Iranian passengers from being subjected to such treatments again,” he said.
“Thanks to the measures adopted, we hope security police at Tbilisi will exercise utmost care concerning the necessity of respecting Muslim women’s privacy and keep such incidents from happening again,” the spokesman added.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry says that in connection with this issue, a meeting will be held with the ambassador of Iran.
"We have been informed by Iranian diplomatic channels that part of Iranian citizens have expressed dissatisfaction over the verification processes at the Tbilisi International Airport.
“The relevant services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia immediately started studying the passengers' verification procedures by aviation security officers at the airport,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry says that based on the preliminary data, the Georgian law enforcers have not revealed any mistreatment, including outraging the religious feelings.
“The Iranian side has already been informed about it,” the ministry reported.
The ministry added that the issue would be discussed further during the meeting with the ambassador of Iran to Georgia.
