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Ninotsminda (Municipality, Georgia)

ნინოწმინდა

Flag and arms of Ninotsminda - Images by The State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia, 8 February 2011

Presentation of Ninotsminda
Flag of Ninotsminda

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Georgia

Presentation of Ninotsminda

Ninotsminda is a municipality located in Georgia's southern Region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The district has a population of 34,305 according to 2002 Census, with a huge majority of Armenians, the district being on the border with Armenia.
Before 1991, the town of Ninotsminda was called Bogdanovka, a name going back to the history of the Doukhobor settlement in the region in the 1840s. After the conquest of Kars in 1878, some Doukhobors from Bogdanovka moved to the newly created Kars Oblast. Twenty years later, some of them (or their descendants) emigrated from Kars Oblast to Canada, where they established a short-lived village named Bogdanovka in Langham district of Saskatchewan. Another group of emigrants, coming straight from Georgian Bogdanovka, established another Bogdanovka near Pelly, Saskatchewan.
In Soviet Union, Doukhobor population of the region was in comparatively favorable conditions, isolated from attention of civil officials as population of ethnically mixed borderline region. In the 1990s, following the collapse of Soviet Union and rise of nationalist pressure (both local Armenian and state-imposed Georgian), a significant part of remaining Russian settlers abandoned their homes to settle in Russia.
[Wikipedia]

Jens Pattke, 19 September 2010

Flag of Ninotsminda

The flag and arms of Ninotsminda are prescribed by Decree No. 14, adopted on 20 April 2010 by the Municipal Council.

The State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia, 23 February 2012

The flag is horizontally divided purple-yellow (4:1) with a yellow St. Nino's cross in the upper field.
The flag is derived form the coat of arms, "Purpure a St. Nino's cross or surrounded by a grapevine garland of the same. The shield surmounted by a three-towered mural crown argent fimbriated sable. Under the shield a scroll argent fimbriated sable charged with the name of the town in Georgian capital letters sable".
[State Council of Heraldry at the Parliament of Georgia]

The St. Nino's cross and the grapevine are straightforward references to St. Nino, the namesake of the town.
St. Nino (c. 300 - c. 332) is nicknamed "The Enlightener of Georgia". One of the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Nino is said to have been a relative of St. George; she converted different rulers so that King Mirian III (c. 284 - c. 361) of Iberia (today's Kartli) adopted Christianity as the official religion c. 327.
The St. Nino's cross, also known as the Grapevine cross, is the main symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The legend says that Nino received it from the Blessed Virgin (or made it herself with two grapevine branches entwined with her own hair). During Persian and Turkish invasions, the holy cross was hidden in Armenia, in the Georgian mountains, and, eventually in Moscow. Upon request of Prince George Bagration, Tsar Alexander I returned the cross to Georgia in 1802. Since then, the cross has been preserved in the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi.

Ivan Sache, 2 June 2012