evidence: Davit Gareja is a rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery situated between Georgia’s Kakheti province and Azerbaijan’s Agstafa raion. The complex has been subject to a long-running border dispute between Georgia and Azerbaijan that dates back to the Sovietization of the two republics in the 1920s. The legacy of Soviet nationalities policy has only further complicated this dispute. [...] While it is true that the original site of Davit Gareja falls within the Hereti region, which was variously controlled by the Albanian and Georgian kingdoms, the fact remains that the area was in the Georgian political and cultural sphere by the time the monastery complex was founded. Further, the numerous Georgian inscriptions and work of Georgian artists attest to the complex’s distinct Georgian character. The assertions from Baku that Gareja is an Albanian, not Georgian, monastery complex have caused bafflement and indignation among Georgians. [...] The influential Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II stated that Davit Gareja is a "holy shrine" and should be located "entirely on Georgian soil." His position is shared by the Georgian public, which is generally opposed to conceding any portion of the monastery to Azerbaijan. In 2007, Giga Bukia, a member of Georgia’s then-opposition (now a member of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition) stated that "Georgians will never, under any circumstances, give up this territory" and that "Azerbaijan has absolutely no historical rights to this land." He also openly wondered if the Aliyev government was planning to go to war with Georgia, given Baku’s interest in the site’s "strategic significance" on a heights overlooking Georgian territory.