On 30 April 1850 , the papal bulla '' Universi Dominici gregis '' from Pius IX established the Armenian Catholic eparchy ( Eastern Catholic diocese ) of '' ' Artvin of the Armenians ' '' , with jurisdiction over the extreme northeast of Turkey and in the ( Russian ) Transcaucasus . It has had only three incumbents : Under an agreement between Russia and the Holy See in 1904 , Catholic Armenians throughout the Caucasus and interior Russia were entrusted to an apostolic administrator resident in Tbilisi ( Georgia ) , but the Soviet authorities imprisoned him , and he died some time before 1937 . The diocese had already lost most of its faithful in the Armenian Genocide at the end of the First World War . The Holy See continued to list the eparchy of Artvin as a vacant residential see until 1971 , but in 1972 , suppressing it as such , began to list Artvin as the Armenian Catholic titular bishopric of Artvin ( Curiate Italian ) / Artwin / Artuinen ( sis ) Armenorum ( Latin )
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Artvin