CULTURE THAT UNITES RATHER THAN DIVIDES

Text and photographs by Onnik James Krikorian

The ethnic Armenian-run “Azeri Tea House” in Tbilisi, Georgia © Onnik James Krikorian

Like Sergei Paradjanov, whose last film before his death in 1990 was based on an Azeri love story and filmed in Azerbaijan despite the rising tensions, Sayat Nova was very much a cultural figure for the entire Caucasus and not restrained by national ideology or borders. The legendary bard wrote most of his songs in Azerbaijani, then the lingua franca of the region. Indeed, a statue of Paradjanov can also be found nearby, as can a monument to Sayat Nova, although it’s a mainly ethnic Azeri area of Tbilisi, and soon the location of a new Azerbaijani Embassy overlooking Heydar Aliyev Park.

A street in the mainly ethnic-Azeri town of Marneuli named after Sayat Nova, an ethnic Armenian troubador © Onnik James Krikorian

 

The perpetual dispute over food is nowhere to be found in the ethnic Armenian-Azeri co-inhabited village of Tsopi, with ethnic Armenian and Azeri children celebrating the birthday of a 6-year old Azeri child at a table full of regional dishes such as dolma. As one writer, Ağarəhim, wrote, “Dolma yeyənindi, Sarı Gəlin oxuyanındı (Dolma belongs to those who eat it, Sarı Gelin belongs to those who sing it).” That could never ring truer than it does in villages such as Tsopi © Onnik James Krikorian

Ethnic Azeris prepare for a wedding in the co-inhabited village of Tsopi. Ethnic Armenian neighbours were also invited to attend. Photo © Onnik James Krikorian 

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