On October 7, 2017, the “House of Hovhannes Tumanyan” Center for Science and Culture of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia hosted a literary event “We Read Tumanyan”. In attendance were Armenian and Georgian writers, translators, scholars, scientists and artists. Director of the “Home of Hovhannes Tumanyan” Center Gisane Hovsepyan, transmitted to the attendees the blessings of the Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan; and gave opening remarks. She presented the history of the house of Hovhannes Tumanyan, touched upon the path taken to return the home to the Armenian community of Georgia. The speaker gave a speech on the activities of the Center, and stressed that to restore an atmosphere of love and friendship once created by Tumanyan is one of the overriding objectives of the Center. “The people gathered here today would have been here one hundred years ago, if they had been Tumananyan’s contemporaries. We express our deep gratitude to the benefactors, the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, namely the Diocesan Primate, for the fact that Home of Tumanyan opened its doors again and we became participants and witnesses to the renaissance of Tumanyan’s sacrament,” noted Gisane Hovsepyan.

The Center had prepared “gifts-parchments” with Tumanyan’s poems; this was a pleasant surprise for the guests, provoking readers into thinking seriously about the issue, expressing their heartfelt words about the house, the center, future cooperation and projects.

Congratulatory message of poetess and translator Anahit Bostanjyan on the occasion of the opening of the “House of Hovhannes Tumanyan” Center was read during the event. Unfortunately, the poetess didn’t live to see how the house opened, but the attendees were offered to dedicate the next meeting to Anahit Bostanjyan’s works as a tribute to her memory.

Poet and translator Givi Shakhnazari alongside the Armenian read the Georgian version of the poems. “This house used to be a place where love and friendship lived, and it is nice to see that in our beloved city of Tbilisi good traditions of Tumanyan are brought back to life,” noted Givi Shakhnazari.

During the event, the attendees were offered to hold the meetings devoted to reading literature on regular basis. Poet and translator Artem Grigorents proposed to the guests to register a domain, in order to create publications of works of intellectuals united around the center and to discuss them.

Let us add that following the official opening of the center, the “House of Hovhannes Tumanyan” Center’s library holding are constantly being replenished. After reading his poem, miniature painter Meruzhan Shahumyan presented the Center with seven books, including an anthology “Armenian Poetry” compiled by Valery Bryusov and released in 1915.