Tbilisi §

Imperial capital and Armenian urban centre

Tbilisi, historically Tiflis, was the administrative and cultural capital of the Russian South Caucasus. Before Yerevan became the capital of an Armenian state, Tbilisi was one of the most important Armenian urban centres in the region, with newspapers, theatres, schools, merchants and revolutionary networks. Azerbaijani, Georgian, Russian, Armenian, Persian and Jewish communities all used the city as an imperial crossroads.

The city matters because many Armenian and Azerbaijani political projects were incubated there before they had national capitals of their own. The ARF, Armenian intellectual circles, Muslim reformist networks and socialist organisers all moved through Tiflis. The 1921 Caucasian Bureau meetings on Karabakh also took place in Tiflis, making the city a decision site for the later conflict.

Tbilisi is therefore not just Georgian background. It is the urban setting where imperial administration, Armenian cultural modernity and South Caucasian revolutionary politics overlapped before national borders separated them. editorial