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01.06.2009

PROBLEMS OF ARMENIAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES IN AKHALKALAK AND NINOSTSMINDA

   

Arestakes Simavoryan

Today in the expert community it is much spoken about the Armenians who are of other religion or belong to other Church. However, we can state with assurance that after the Armenians, who belong to Apostolic church, Armenian catholic community is the most viable religious community which has represented Armeniancy by Mekhitarist order for several hundred years.

Why do we want to see this community consolidated and united today? Undoubtedly, they also have to play decisive role in the issues of the organization of the Armeniancy, and their isolation from common national ideas of the Armeniancy may have drastic consequences. Unfortunately, there are such examples in the Armenian history, when Catholic Armenians of Poland, Romania and Hungary assimilated with the local population. In order to prevent what happened to the first Armenians who had accepted Catholicism we should first of all stop taking Armenians as the exclusively members of Apostolic Church and realize that in the course of the centuries, regardless of our will, Armenian Protestant and Catholic communities have been formed. And instead of looking for differences, it is necessary to find the ground of similarities of the segments, which belong to different confessions but have one and the same ethnos, and this will put forward numerous questions. And those questions should have answers, they should be covered, analyzed and have tangible results. It is obvious that shifts and the processes within those religious segments should be of top-priority. How will they correspond to the national interests of the Armeniancy? And at last, what do we want? Do we want to see those communities estranged or do we want to involve them in all-Armenian issues?

Realizing the importance of the aforementioned issues, we, first of all, should see, what kind of communities, which work for the good of the Armenians and, just the opposite, “extinguishing” communities we have. In the article the overwhelmed problems of the Armenian catholic communities of Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda and the problems, which are still to be solved, are presented. Those groups, from the point of view of the preserving of the Armenian identity, are the example to follow, and, unlike other communities, they have a unique originality.

The second stratum of Armenian catholic communities, existing today in Akhalkalak and Ninotsminda (the first stratum was Georgified) was established there in the 20-30th years of the 19th century, by the Armenians who came there from various districts of the Western Armenia - Karin, Mush, Ardagan and etc. The newly formed communities resisted many difficulties successfully and did not cede to the calls to Islamize or follow Georgian Orthodox Church. Those processes had stopped after the sovietization of Georgia, which brought many new challenges to the Catholic Armenians.

The main challenge was the establishment of the Soviet order in Georgia, as well as in Armenia, which was accompanied by the persecutions, exiles and physical intimidation of the clergymtn, confiscation of the property of the churches, which weakened the stance of the Armenian catholic spiritual authorities in those districts. The Catholicism among the so called Armenian “frangs” revived after the breakup of the Soviet Union, when the new situation allowed spiritual authorities of Rome to solve the issue of including the catholic communities of two countries in one Diocese.

The talks with the Georgian party on the acquisition of the legal status by the Catholic Church in Georgia (including not only Armenian Catholics but also Georgian Catholics, Assyrians and Chaldeans) appeared at the dead end. This unsolved issue is principal for Vatican and it still remains one of the fundamental problems. The ambassador of Vatican to South Caucuses on religious issues Gujerotti mentioned: “The aggravation of the issues is particularly connected with the Armenians. For the Georgians this is not simply issue of 4-5 churches; it has a definite ethnic character” ¹. On this basis the Catholic spiritual activity in Georgia from the legal point view became rather restricted for Vatican.

At the same time Catholic Armenians in Georgia de-facto entered the newly formed Eastern European Diocese, which was formed in 1991, with its residence in Gyumri. The city was not chosen by chance. Most of the Catholic Armenians live in the northern parts of the Armenia. This has become a kind of basis for fence-mending with the coreligionists on the other side of the border. Today Catholic Armenians of Samtskhe-Javakhq live together in Akhaltsikhe and in the nearby villages, as well as in the regions of Akhalkalak and Ninotsminda. The communities of the last two regions, which are mainly rural, are on rather distant territories, but the most important interlink is the historical memory about Catholicism.

We do not separate them from Armenian ethnos but we regard them as purely religious community, which has its own peculiar problems. To a wide extend, the problems of the Catholic Armenians do not defer much from the problems of the Apostolic Armenians and they find space within the framework of the main problems of Samtskhe-Javakhq.

Catholic Armenians of Ninostsminda (Bogdanovka) and Akhalkalak

In common parlance the Catholic Armenians living in those regions are called “frangs”, “frengs”. Some connect the etymology of the word “frang” with the name of the missionaries of the Franciscan congregation in Cilician Armenia². Initially this word meant “crusader”, “European”, “stranger”. The demonstrative example of the aforementioned is the word “frenk”, which has come to Turkish from Latin and has a meaning of what was said above. Lately, the word “European” associated with the Catholicism, and due to the fact that the Catholicism was mainly spread among the Armenians by the European missionaries, the word “frang” adopted a double meaning and denoted both religious affiliation and ethnic background (French, Italian).

Proceeding from the typical names, given in the neighbouring regions to the Catholic Armenians in Javakhq, those names can be divided into separate groups. But the characteristics, given to those groups, should not be regarded as ethnicons. It defines the group on the basis of territorial (Msheci, Karneci), lingual (Turkish speaking, Georgian speaking) and other peculiarities. We can say the same about “frang” self-designation. It usually does not show the ethnic background but shows what religious confession they belong to.

Those groups are:
a. “msheci-frangs”
b. “gbo-frangs”
c. “khas-frangs”

a. “Msheci-frangs” today mainly live in rural communities in Ninostsminda – Heshti, Ujman, Toria and Jdanovakan. It should also be mentioned that the last one was founded in 1930-32 and its population moved from Heshti. After the independence of the Soviet Georgia Heshtia becomes the spiritual centre of the Catholic Armenians in the district of Ninotsminda.

The rural community of Heshtia is one of the most organized Armenian Catholic communities. Here mother superiors play rather significant role: due to their efforts and the help of American benefactors the “Cardinal Aghajanyan” youth camp has been opened there.

The reactivation of the Armenian Catholic Church began in 1992 there, when sisters of the Congregation of Immaculate Conception settled in Heshtia. According to the evidence of nun Tatevik Albertyan: “… the church was closed and worked as a store house for the collective farm and was stuck with wheat and rye” ³.

In those very years Georgian Orthodox Church was preparing the policy of “putting in the right way” Catholic Armenians, saying that they had been former “Georgian Catholics” who became Armenized under various factors. On this ground in 1995 the head of Georgian Church Ilia II suddenly visited Heshtia. He wanted to minister according to the Georgian ceremonial act in the local Armenian Catholic Church, but after the stubborn resistance of the locals he left the village⁴. This fourteen years old incident once more comes to prove that the policy of Georgia’s spiritual “terror” have a continuing character and it manifests itself even today, despite of what church the Armenians belong to – Catholic or Apostolic. The interdenominational relations with Vatican became tense particularly due to such an unfounded approach of the Georgian Church.

Generally, the population of Heshtia regards the Catholic Armenians of Ujmana and Toria as their “friends” and this is first of all conditioned by the fact that they are the successors of the Armenians from Mush. The language is also a factor that unites them – they speak Mush dialect, and due to it they differ from other Armenian Catholics who speak Karno dialect. The Catholic Armenians of Ninotsminda are constantly in the centre of the attention of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchy and as a result strong and efficient relations are established between them. The population of Heshtia, Toria, Ujmana mainly emigrates to Armenia, Russia and other countries and thus gives a grounding to the creation of new Armenian Catholic communities.

b. “Msheci-frangs” of Ninotsminda usually call Turkish-speaking Catholic Armenians “gbo” ⁵. Catholic Armenians called “gbo” mainly inhabit the villages of Bavra, Khulguma, Kartikam, Turtskh of Akhakalak region and Asfara and New Khulguma of Bogdanovka region. The population of the aforementioned villages moved to Javakhq (they had already been Turkish-speaking) from the Vel village of Geola community of Ardagan province in the Western Armenia⁶.

The fact that there is Turkish-speaking population in those villages is the inheritance of the Ottoman epoch. If the population of that village had not migrated, they, probably, would have converted to Islam. The Islamisation and Turkishizing of the thin Armenian Catholic community, which did not migrate, after decades can serve as an eloquent evidence of that it⁷.

A lot of time needed to dispose of the habit of speaking Turkish. This phenomenon could be seen even after their establishing in Jvakhq, because the Velians had a factor of Turkish menace in their conscious, and, in fact, the preservation of the foreign, in this case Turkish, language was a kind of protection. To survive they even tried to refuse their roots and used to say “it olurum, ermeni olmam” (I would rather be a dog, than an Armenian)⁸. But it should be mentioned that the Turkish-speakingness was more expressed in pre-Soviet period and only after the improvement of the educational system and elimination of illiteracy that phenomenon ceded and Armenian language prevailed in everyday life. Only old people in the aforementioned villages speak Turkish and among the youth that tradition does not dominate.

Today those villages (as well as the villages of Alastan and Varevan) are ministered by the leader of the Armenian Catholics of Akhlkalak and Ninostsminda Polish clergyman, abbot father Andre Eanicky. He has been ministering here for 20 years with his residence in Turtskh. It is interesting that the shortage of the Armenian Catholic clergymen is supplied with foreign priests. Besides father Andre there are two other Polish clergymen working in Javakhq – father Joseph Kornashevsky (the leader of Catholic Armenians in Tbilisi and Akhaltskha, residence in Tsakhaltubo) and Abbot Anatol Ivanuk.

Sometimes Vatican help the villages of Khalgumo and Turtskh, which can hardly make both ends meet with the help of agriculture and which have no other sources of income, sending them flour, sugar, sunflower oil and other goods of prime necessity⁹. Today both Apostolic and Catholic Armenians leave Javakhq. The last ones mainly leave for Russia that is why most of the villages are half empty. Particularly, in Turtskh from 450 Armenian families there are only 230 left; the youth mainly emigrates. The same situation is in Khulgumo, where 150 families emigrated. It turns out that the complement and the existence of rather well-organized Catholic Armenian communities in a number of Russian cities, including Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, is at some extent conditioned by the emigration of those Catholic Armenians.

c. Today the population of villages of Alastan and Varevan¹⁰ is called “Khas-frangs”. The inhabitants of Alastan explain their being “khas”, which means “pure-frangs”, by the fact that had never spoke Turkish, like the population of the neighbouring village of Turtskh. Some people explain it in the other way, saying that they have always been adherent of ceremonial of Armenian Catholic Church and always rejected the Roman ceremonials. That is why neighbouring villages call them “pure-frangs”. The very important components (educational, ceremonial), which had positive effect on preserving Armeniancy were brought to this village by the clergymtn, who received their education in Mkhitarist order. Under such circumstances the activity of the Armenian Catholic Church was not only spiritual but also educational and this, at some extent, allowed keeping away from the repeating the fate of several neighbouring villages¹¹ inhabited by the Armenian Catholics, which were Georgified. The people of Alastan used to say the following words, which illustrated their adherence to the Catholicism or even their fanaticism: “If Catholic Armenian passes by the Apostolic church and at that moment a thorn imbedded into his foot, he must not get down, because it would mean that he adhere the traditional Armenian Church”¹².

One may say that they were rather “chary” in the issues of allowing their daughters getting married with neighbour Apostolic Armenians, which is also conditioned by the habit of living constricted internal community life and was restricted by the marriage with the co-religionist. The tradition of the internal community marriages was a vital factor for Apostolic Armenians and it excluded marriages with the representatives of other nationalities. This tradition slipped to the Catholic Armenians and even more constricted and transformed its original sense and was reflected in the restriction of the marriages with the Apostolic Armenians.

Of course there are no more such perceptions today; they have finally fall into oblivion and put out of the community life the stereotypes formed by the religious traditionalism. But this phenomenon was not unilateral: in the same way Apostolic Armenians never married Catholic Armenians from neighbouring villages. Anyway such problems do not prevail any more. They are more vividly expressed in the places which are surrounded by non-Armenian milieu, where internal community marriages allow “prolonging” the life of the community for some period.

Unfortunately, we should state that today there are only 500 people, and mostly old people, left in Alastan, while its population used to be about 3000 people. Most of them moved to Armenia in 1960-1970th. They gradually integrated to the Armenian society and because they had no Catholic education they adopted the religion of their ancestors. This was made gradually, consciously and without any constraint, sometimes in order to get finally rid of the image and the label of “frang”. There are even cases when some of the members of the family belong to Apostolic Church while the others belong to Catholic Church but it doesn’t play significant role in their family relations.

Today the church of the Dormition of the Theotocos, which was built in 1856, works in the village. On the money of the youth working abroad and money donated by Vatican the restoration of the church began. On June 30, 2008, in order to see the restoration of the church, the leader of the Armenian Catholic Church Patriarch Nerses Petros 19th visited the village. The visit of the Patriarch to Georgia was historical event, because this is the first visit of such a high-ranked clergyman to the Catholic Armenians. Patriarch visited 14 Catholic Armenian villages and got acquainted to the problems of the locals¹³.

The other village inhabited by “khas-frangs” is Varevan, which is also at the edge of depopulation. There was a time when three ethnic groups lived in that village – Catholic Armenians, Orthodox Georgians and Meskhetian Turks. In 1944 Turks¹⁴ were deported, and in 1947 the majority of the Georgians were moved by the authorities to the abundant with gardens and fertile lands villages in the Kura River valley, where deported Meskhetian Turks used to live. Today, together with the Armenians several Georgians and two Georgified Greek families live in Varevan¹⁵.

Conclusions

• Armenian Catholic Church, which at the first opportunity took under its wing its adepts, had a substantial contribution to the spiritual conversion of the Catholic Armenians in Jvakhq. Thus, it has established the geographic boundaries of the expansion of its spiritual authority and at the same time became a part of both spiritual-ecclesiastic and social life of Catholic Armenians. It is supposed that every rural community cannot have even one clergyman and several such communities are ministered only by one priest and this is taken negatively by the Armenians. As Armenian Catholic Church, which has scares resources, in its turn cannot provide the villages with the priests and the rural youth do not want to live the life of a clergyman, very often this role is taken by Vatican, which sends foreign clergymen. It becomes a decisive factor and forms the zone of Armenian and Western influence.
• Though the forced ideology of the Soviet period was atheistic, nevertheless, Catholic Armenians of Akhlkalak and Ninotsminda in that period preserved their, if we may say so, “Catholic identity”. It was mostly expressed in the attitude towards the Catholic clergymen, sent there after the collapse of the USSR. The locals who were deprived of ministry for more that 70 years and especially their successors did not treat the outsider, foreign priests negatively. Particularly, people built the apartment for father Andre who came to Turtskh. This comes to prove that Catholicism firmly stayed in the spiritual conscious of the Armenians and they could not turn away from that. The same attitude was in the line of the churches. Though they were closed or were used for other purposes but they were preserved conscientiously.
• Unfortunately, the population of the communities reduces due to the emigration, and neither Vatican, nor Armenian Catholic Church can do anything to stop it. That is one of the most crucial and topical problems for Javakhq and that problem have deeper causes. But, in spite of all those problems, the Armenian Catholic communities of Jvakhq are rather viable. All those villages preserved their Armenian features due to the Armenian milieu. Undoubtedly the role of the Mkhitarists, who educated locals in the Armenian spirit, retained them from alien influence and preserved their national identity, was significant.

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