Cultural Connections Between Tbilisi and Yerevan

Narek sahakyan writes in his blog:

Tbilisi or Tiflis, a city which has always had close cultural connections with Armenians and Armenian culture. There were so many genius Armenians whose native town was Tbilisi: Sayat Nova, Alexander Mantashyants, Nar-Dos, Aram Khachatryan, Isahac Alikhanyan, Victor Hambartsumyan, Sergey Parajanov. Hovhannes Tumanyan was born in the village of Dsegh, Armenia, but he spent most of his creative life in Tiflis.

Tiflis had a great influence on the creative life of Armenian outstanding people. It was the intellectual center of  Armenians. They say that Tbilisi was built by Armenians and by the beginning of the 20^th century it had had 45 Armenian mayors out of 47.

When we were in Tbilisi we went to Saint Echmiatsin Church. We had an interesting talk with Ter Samvel Torosyan, the a priest working there. He told us about the church and Armenians living in Tbilisi. According to some sources more than 80000 Armenians live in Tbilisi. The church, bilt in the 19^th century, is the only link connecting Armenians there. 25000 Armenians are registered by the Armenian Church. The priest also told us about Alexander Mantashyan who was one of the greatest Armenian charity mongers of the 20th century. His bust is in the churchyard now. Tbilisi has a peculiar significance for me. I am Armenian and I am willingly learning Georgian.I am interested in the history and culture of our neighboring country.

Translated into English by Hovhannes Aleqyan and Davit Nikoghosyan