Tag: tbilisi

In this deeply moving essay, Alexander Thatcher describes his search for "the New Berlin"—a city with the raw energy of Weimar Berlin, attracting young intellectuals and creatives in search of tumult. From Istanbul and Belgrade to Ozurgeti and Tbilisi, he follows this allure of instability, cultural magnetism and self-discovery.

Over the past three weeks, thousands of people in Tbilisi have protested every night, fearing that the “foreign agent” law would push Georgia towards authoritarianism and Russia’s influence. Taline Oundjian covers the recent events.

A personal account by Alexander Thatcher of what it means to be targeted and attacked by Azerbaijani trolls, a kind of harassment made possible because of the ambiguity afforded by anonymity.

This episode explores the “Lenin of the Caucasus” – Stepan Shahumyan. Originally from the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Shahumyan would forge his revolutionary legacy in Baku, as the leader of the Baku Commune during the Russian Revolution and Civil War. However, the story of Shahumyan is not only the story of the Baku Commune. He also played an instrumental role in developing the Bolshevik (and later Soviet) policy on nationalities. Executed by the British-aligned Socialist Revolutionaries in the Turkmen desert, Shahumyan continues to live on in the monuments and memories of Armenia today. The series is hosted by historian Pietro A. Shakarian and produced by Sona Nersesyan.

A native of Van in Ottoman Armenia, Aghasi Khanjyan arrived in the Armenian republic as a refugee. Attending Gevorgyan Seminary at Etchmiadzin, he was quickly drawn to revolutionary activity and soon became a member of the Bolshevik Party. By the early 1930s, Khanjyan had ascended to the post of Armenia’s First Secretary and became a popular leader known for encouraging a flexible policy toward Armenian national expression. His death at the hands of Georgian leader Lavrentii Beria in 1936 became a pivotal moment for Soviet Armenia during the years of the Stalinist repressions. The series is hosted by historian Pietro A. Shakarian and produced by Sona Nersesyan.

This new series presents the Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th-20th centuries, which were of crucial importance for the two segments—eastern and western—of the Armenian people.

When cinematographer Rudolf Vatinyan passed away from COVID-related complications in 2020, people eulogized about an exacting professional who had filmed a number of iconic films. No one remembered, however, that Vatinyan had a parallel creative passion.

Innovative forms of activism emerged in different societies to overcome the limitations of physical distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arpine Haroyan looks back at how an avant-garde art movement called Futurism impacted the work of a number of young Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople, Tbilisi and Yerevan at the turn of the 20th century.