Bolnisi (Bolnisi Municipality)

XVIII-XIX centuries

According to Raffi, Melik of the Gulistan Principality of Karabakh, Abov Melik-Beglaryan moved from Gandzak to Bolnisi with the intention of establishing a new settlement, but in 1795 he returned from Bolnisi to Karabakh. ^[four]

According to historical data in 1797-1798. after the campaigns of Aga Mohammed Khan , a famine begins in Artsakh, and then the plague. To save from hunger and epidemics, Melik Gulistan, Melik Abov Melik-Beglaryan, along with part of his subjects emigrated to Georgia, but did not find support from the Georgians. Melik Freidun Melik-Beglaryan and Melik Jumshud Melik-Beglaryan go to St. Petersburg to personally ask the emperor for help. By decree of Paul I of June 2, 1799, the Bolnisi district is transferred to Melik Abov, Melik-Beglaryan. The latter appoints Melik Tsatur Melik-Beglaryan as ruler of Bolnis. After Georgia’s annexation to Russia, the role of Artsakh meliks weakened and in 1808 during one of the celebrations in Tbilisi, Abov Melik-Beglaryan was poisoned. ^[five]

According to Raffi, due to the fact that they are denied serfdom regarding the Armenian population, the heirs of Melik-Beglaryanov leave Bolnisi and return to Gulistan by 1812. ^[6]

Twentieth Century

At the beginning of the XX century it was part of the Tiflis province .

After the declaration of independence of Georgia and Armenia in 1918, the ownership of the village as well as other Armenian settlements in the border zone was controversial, which led to the Armenian-Georgian war . On December 18, Armenian troops occupied the village. ^[7] On December 31, 1918, on the last day of the Armenian-Georgian war, according to the armistice plan proposed by the British occupying forces, the village came under the control of Georgian forces. Subsequently, it entered the neutral zone between Armenia and Georgia, then it was included in the Georgian SSR.

In the Soviet period, the village was officially called Bolnis-Khachen. In the post-Soviet period, the Georgian authorities renamed the village in Bolnisi, thereby eliminating the indication of the Armenian population in the name.

21st Century

The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the Head of the Government of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze held an informal meeting in the village in January 2019, and also talked with the residents. ^[eight]

The village is located on the left bank of the Bolnisisskali (right Mashavera river), 9 km from the city ​​of Bolnisi , at an altitude of 620 meters from sea level under a hill called Kerts in the village ( Armenian ерերծ ).

It borders with the village of Kvemo-Bolnisi in the north, and Shua-Bolnisi in the south, both with a predominantly Azerbaijani population.

According to the Georgian census in 2014, the population of the village of Bolnisi (Bolnis-Khachen) was 1,534, of which 1,408 were Armenians . ^[9]

• Bolnisi Zion
• Church of Zugrugashen
• Gazaros Agayan House Museum

• writer Gazaros Agayan
• composer Harutyun Hovhannisyan
• Rostomyan, Apoven Vasilievich , Hero of the Soviet Union
• Anushavan Danielyan , Prime Minister of the Artsakh Republic in 1999-2007
• Vardanyan, Gevorg Grachayevich
• Khublaryan, Martin Gaykovich

• Village Coordinates

• Historical migrations of the Armenian population
• Armenians in Georgia