Armenians on the Georgian shores of the Black Sea

by Tatul Hakobyan

Published: Saturday August 23, 2008

Khumaryan says the Armenians began leaving Ajaria - moving mainly to Russia - during the last years of the Soviet Union and well into the 1990s. As their migration continues today, it is expected that within a few years only a tiny pocket of Armenians will remain in Ajaria.

The Armenians settled in Batumi and the Ajarian coast of the Black Sea some 200 years ago. In 1828-29, following the Russo-Turkish War, thousands of Armenians from Ardvin, Moush, Baberd, and other ­areas of Western Armenia migrated to various regions of the Czarist Empire, including Ajaria. A considerable portion of those who found refuge in Ajaria were Catholics. Today their descendants are active members of the Armenian community and often attend Batumi's lone Armenian house of worship, the Holy Savior Apostolic Church.

Built in the latter part of the 19th century by the Armenian industrialist and benefactor Mantashov, Holy Savior was used as an observatory during the Soviet years. In 1992, when the Soviet republics acquired independence, Holy Savior was returned to the Armenian community and subsequently renovated, with local and diaspora financial assistance. Today Holy Savior is the only public gathering point for Batumi's Armenian community.

Some 250,000 Armenians live in Georgia, concentrated mainly in Javakheti, Tbilisi, and the Tsalka region. Various figures put the number of Armenians living in Ajaria at about 6,000. They are concentrated in Batumi and the cities of Kobuleti and Chakvi. There is also a scant number of families that reside in different villages.

Father Kirakos Davtyan, the spiritual leader of Ajaria's Armenian community, says that the majority of its members are Russian-speaking, a fact that forces him sometimes to deliver his sermons in Russian.

With Armenian schools long closed and most Ajaria Armenians preferring to send their children to Russian or Georgian schools, the only school setting where children can learn their mother tongue is an Armenian department in a Georgian school, attended by only 32 Armenian students. Still, to encourage local Armenians to learn the language, Holy Savior operates a Sunday school, which is now attended by students ranging in age from eight to 60. According to Father Davtyan, last year 56 Russian-speaking Armenians learned to speak basic Armenian. This year the Sunday school has 50 students.

Smbat Topbashyan, a coffee seller, is an active member of Batumi's Armenian community. He says he is certain that the Georgian­-school Armenian department will eventually close down, as Armenian parents no longer wish to send their children to a school that lacks qualified teachers and has no future. Mr. Topbashyan believes that Armenia must pay attention to the Armenians of Ajaria if it wishes to see a continued Armenian presence in a region that is of strategic significance to Armenia.

A few months ago an Armenian consulate opened in Ajaria. The region is important to the Armenian republic for a number of reasons. First, every year thousands of Armenian citizens vacation here. Second, commercial sea shipments to and from Armenia pass through the port of Batumi. As Armenia lacks direct sea access and remains blockaded by Turkey and Azerbaijan, its main import and export link to the outside world is through Georgia and the Batumi port.

According to Mr. Topbashyan, given that the governments of both Armenia and Georgia continue to ignore or fail to pay adequate attention to the needs and issues of Ajaria's Armenian community, local Armenians have no choice but to leave their birthplace, in search of better opportunities in various parts of the world.

"Armenians in my neighborhood once made up 40 percent of the residents," Mr. Topbashyan says. "Now only our family is left. Everyone else has left for either Russia or Europe, and some have gone to Armenia."

In 2006 approximately 55,000 people from Armenia spent their vacations on the Black Sea coast of Ajaria - in Batumi, Kobuleti, or Sarpi. That number jumped to 70,000 in 2007, and was expected to reach 100,000 this year when, beginning on August 8, the Georgian-Russian war forced many to seek safer vacation destinations.

Strangely enough, these days it's cheaper for Armenian citizens to spend their summer breaks in Georgia than at traditional Armenian tourist spots such as Sevan, Tsaghkadzor, and Jermuk. Instead, vacationing in Armenia has now become a privilege that can be afforded only by well-to-do Armenians - including diasporans.

Every year thousands of Armenian citizens, mostly belonging to the middle class, spend millions of dollars in Georgia whereas they have the choice of spending their tourist dollars in our own country. But you can't force someone, as a matter of patriotic duty, to spend, say, $1,000 on the shores of Sevan when a wonderful summer vacation can be had for much less on the Black Sea coast.

Hovhannes Hovsepyan, another Ajaria Armenian, recalls that in the Soviet years few people from Armenia took vacations on the Ajaria coast of the Black Sea, because back then the borders were open and Armenians preferred the more glamorous stretches of the coast, such as the Sochi resort. Today vacationers from Armenia prefer to go to Ajaria because it's relatively cheap and only 400 km away from Armenia. Getting to Ajaria is also easy, through direct bus and train service between Yerevan and Batumi. (The train service is offered during high season, from June until mid-September.)

Despite the fact that thousands from Armenia vacation in Ajaria every year, relations between local Armenians and those from the homeland remain weak. Visiting Armenians make contact with local Armenians only in emergency situations.

Ardyom Hambardzumyan remembers the "good old days" when there were strong bonds between his community and Armenia. That was the Soviet era, a time when groups of artists from Armenia visited Ajaria for various competitions.