Akhalkalaki
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Akhalkalaki ახალქალაქი |
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| State : |
 Georgia
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| Region : | Samtskhe Javakheti | ||
| Municipality : | Akhalkalaki | ||
| Coordinates : | 41 ° 24 ' N , 43 ° 29' E | ||
| Residents : | 8,295 (2014) | ||
| Time zone : | Georgian Time (UTC + 4) | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
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Akhalkalaki ( Georgian ახალქალაქი , Neustadt ' ; Armenian Ախալքալաք Achalgalag ; Russian Ахалкалаки ) is a town in Georgia .
geography
The city is located 30 kilometers from the Turkish border in the south of the administrative region Samtskhe-Javakheti on the edge of the Javakheti plateau .
It has 8,295 inhabitants (as of 2014). The number of residents has decreased since the independence of Georgia. In 1989, 15,192 people lived in the city. By 2002, 5,390 residents migrated from Akhalkalaki. Young men in particular moved to Russia or Armenia . 90% of the population belong to the Armenian ethnic group . They are bilingual , speak mainly Russian and the colloquial Armenian .
history
Akhalkalaki was in the first half of the 11th century by the Georgian kings Bagrat III. and Bagrat IV. built as a fortress town at a strategically favorable location. The name Akhalkalaki roughly means New Town in Georgian .
In 1064 the Seljuk troops under Sultan Alp Arslan invaded Georgia via Armenia and besieged Akhalkalaki. Since the fortifications of the city were not yet completely finished, a defense was hopeless, which is why the city was captured by the Seljuks on the third day. According to the chronicler Matthias von Edessa , the entire population was murdered.
In 1637 the city was conquered by the Turks and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire . The inhabitants were Islamized. Today's citadel, mosque and caravanserai also date from the Turkish period .
During the 8th Russian Turkish War , the city was captured on July 16, 1828 by Russian troops under the command of General Ivan Fyodorowitsch Paskewitsch and incorporated into the Russian governorate of Tbilisi . The city, which was destroyed during the conquest, was rebuilt immediately southeast of the old fortress walls in a checkerboard pattern and settled with Armenians from the Ottoman Vilayet Erzurum .
In the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk , Soviet Russia Akhalkalaki temporarily ceded to the Ottoman Empire . After the conclusion of the Treaty of Kars between Soviet Russia and Turkey, the city was added to the Georgian SSR in 1921 . In 1944 Stalin had all of the approximately 20,000 Meshes from the Samtskhe-Javakheti region deported to Central Asia .
Until 1991 the city was in the so-called border area. Outside visitors required special permits to visit them. There were local Armenian national movements around this time demanding territorial autonomy. Armenian combat units in the region took part in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict .
The 62nd military base of the Russian Armed Forces Group in Transcaucasia with 30,000 soldiers was stationed in Akhalkalaki. It was closed on October 1, 2007, and soldiers and weapons were withdrawn from Georgia. Many vehicles and weapons had already been removed from the base in 2006.
economy
In the Akhalkalakis bazaars , Armenian and Russian currencies are accepted in addition to Georgian lari .
traffic
railroad
The Tbilisi – Akhalkalaki railway was opened in three sections between 1982 and 1986. It branches in Marabda from the railway Tbilisi-Yerevan , and ended in the station Akhalkalaki Samsg. This was no longer in operation in summer 2017. The tracks were interrupted in the area of the construction site of the gauge changing station and the electrical overhead line was unusable.
The new Akhalkalaki train station is 8 km south of the city in an open area near the village of Kulalisi . It is the Georgian border and lane change station for the Kars – Akhalkalaki – Tbilisi railway connection . To this end, not only was the new station built, but the railway line to Tbilisi was also renovated. However, it is mainly used for freight transport. Only the international long-distance train Baku - Turkey of the Azerbaijani Railway stops here .
Street
Tbilisi from Akhalkalaki can on the road either north on the road link Gori - Borjomi - Akhaltsikhe be achieved or south via Ninotsminda - Tsalka to a large extent along the railway line .
Web links
- Policy paper of IPF fellow Nana Sumbadze on the project: “Preparation of the program for opening the Center for Social Partnership”. policy.hu (history and politics of the Akhalkalaki region)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Samvel Karapetian, Javakhk. Scientific Research Series of Research on Armenian Architecture. Book 9 (Yerevan 2011), p. 53.
- ^ Josef Marquart, Sketches on the historical topography and history of the Caucasus: The Itinerary from Artaxata to Armastica on the Roman World Map (1928), p. 48.
- ↑ Ara Edmond Dostourian, The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa. Translated from the Original Armenian with a Commentary and Introduction (Lanham 1993), pp. 101-102.
- ↑ Uwe Halbach: Ethnic Diversity in Georgia , in: Bernd Schröder (Ed.): Georgia: Society and Religion on the Threshold of Europe , Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 2005, p. 27.
- ^ Neil Robinson: World Rail Atlas . Vol. 8: The Middle East and Caucasus . 2006. ISBN 954-12-0128-8 , pp. 15f
- ^ Jürgen Zbinden: The transfer of the first Stadler sleeping car train to Azerbaijan - Part 3. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 1/2020, pp. 20-23 (21).