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Lithuanian deputy foreign minister Mr. Evaldas Ignatavičius participated in the presentation of the photo album about Abkhazian cultural heritage of 19th century, which took place in the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. Earlier he visited the National Centre of Manuscripts of Georgia.  

Photo album was published with the support of Lithuania’s Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme. The project was also supported by Lithuanian company "ACME computer components".

The event was attended by Ms. Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili, Georgia's deputy prime minister and State Minister for Reintegration, Mr. Giorgi Baramidze, deputy prime minister and State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, representatives of the diplomatic corps and academic community.

"For nearly a decade using the joint Abkhaz and Georgian efforts it became possible to collect an interesting historical material, which is contained in this album. I am delighted that Lithuania could contribute to the publishing of this album. Implementation of this project proves that Lithuania continues the efforts of Lithuania’s chairmanship of OSCE, aimed at increasing mutual trust"- said E. Ignatavičius.

The archives of Abkhazian history and culture were almost completely destroyed after the armed conflict in 1992-1993. The presentation of this album concluded the decade-long joint Georgian-Abkhaz academic work. Materials for this photo album were prepared by the Institute on Georgian and Abkhaz Relations at Tbilisi State University.

Mr. Ignatavicius also visited Georgia’s national center of manuscripts and met with its director Mr. Buba Kudava. The purpose of meeting was to discuss the fate of the archives from Pažaislis monastery. Part of this archive was brought to Georgia in the beginning of the twentieth century together with the documents of Kirion II – they are now in Georgia’s state history archive.

Mr. Kudava presented the manuscript of Camaldoli, which was written in 1718-1757. Currently this manuscript is being scanned, and its digital copy will shortly be transferred to Lithuania for further research. During the meeting the deputy minister received the first fragments of this manuscript.

Mr. E.Ignatavičius invited Mr. B. Kudava to visit Lithuania and Pažaislis monastery in particular.

The delegation, headed by the deputy minister E.Ignatavičius, arrived in Georgia to participate in the annual meeting of Lithuania-Georgia Commission for the European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and political consultations.