“Aren’t you that boy from Adjara?” (Babtize)

− Aren’t you that boy from Adjara? – His Holiness asked with a smile at the next meeting.
Yes, Prof. Tariel Putkaradze, then a first-year student at the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi State University, was “that boy” – the first godchild from Adjara, whom Patriarch Ilia II baptized after his enthronement.

Georgian interests and, especially, concern for the linguistic unity of Georgians made his spiritual closeness to the meritorious head of the Georgian Church more visible. It is not by chance that Prof. From 2010 until his death, Tariel Putkaradze worked at the Georgian University, founded on the initiative of the Patriarch, heading the Center for Kartvelology and the School of Kartvelology, the main purpose of which was, on the one hand, the consolidation of Georgian citizens (regardless of origin), and on the other hand, teaching the heritage language to Turkish and Persian Georgians living beyond the state borders, and thus preserving and saving their ethnic identity and ancestral roots.

Iamze Vashakidze, Doctor of Philology

Spouse of Prof. Dr. Tariel Putkaradze