Artvin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artvin (Armenian: Արդվին; Georgian: ართვინი; Russian: Ардвин) is a city in north-eastern Turkey on the Çoruh River near the Georgian border. (Lat (DMS) 41° 10' 56N Long (DMS) 41° 49' 10E Altitude (meters) 345 m)

1 Etymology
2 Population
3 Catholic Diocese
4 Post-1914
5 Notes
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Etymology

Artvin < Artavani "fertile town" < Armenian Arta, arda "arable field" + vani "district, village, town, church".^{[citations needed]}

[edit] Population

The population of Artvin is highly mixed, consisting of mainly Turks and other ethnic minorities like Georgians, Kurds and Lazes.^[1]

2000 23.157
1997 20.073
1990 20.306
1985 18.720

The Catholic Encyclopedia, informs that Artvin city center had 5,900 inhabitants in 1894, mostly Armenians and Turks. There were nine Armenian Catholic churches, and four schools for boys and three schools for girls.

The diocese of Artvin had 12,000 Armenian Catholics, 25 mission priests, 30 Catholic churches and chapels, 22 primary schools with almost 900 pupils. The girls were taught by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[edit] Catholic Diocese

In 1850, Pope Pius IX established the Armenian-Catholic Diocese of Artvin (Artuinensis Armenorum) for the Armenian Catholics of southern Russia. It was subject to the Patriarch of Cilicia in Constantinople. Its first bishop was Timotheus Astorgi (1850-1858), followed by Antonius Halagi (1859) and Joannes Baptista Zaccharian (1878).

In 1878, Russia annexed the territory and united the diocese with that of Tiraspol. Russia subsequently, prevented the appointment of a new bishop.

[edit] Post-1914

Because of the tragedies of the Armenian Genocide between 1914-1918, currently no Christian Armenians live in Artvin. Artvin, along with other regions of what is now northeastern Turkey, was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Artvin was later ceded from Russia to Turkey in the Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Moscow, and Kars.