Regions and territories: Ajaria

The port in the capital, Batumi, is used for the shipment of oil from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Its oil refinery handles Caspian oil from Azerbaijan which arrives by pipeline to Supsa port and is transported from there to Batumi by rail.

Batumi is also an important gateway for the shipment of goods heading into Georgia, Azerbaijan and landlocked Armenia. The Ajarian capital is a centre for shipbuilding and manufacturing. Ajaria has good land for growing tea, citrus fruits and tobacco.

History

The people of Ajaria are ethnically Georgian and the region also has a substantial Russian-speaking population. Under Ottoman rule from the 17th until the 19th century Islam predominated. The word Ajarian came to mean a Georgian Muslim.

In 1878 Ajaria was annexed by Russia and, following the Bolshevik revolution, incorporated into Georgia as an autonomous republic within the USSR. Under Stalin, Islam, like Christianity, was ruthlessly repressed. Nowadays about half the population professes the Islamic faith.

Unlike the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Ajaria has been spared major violence and ethnic unrest since Georgia became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The region was led between 1991 and May 2004 by Aslan Abashidze, who maintained close ties with Moscow. Election results gave him at least 90% of the vote every time and he ruled in what many observers described as an autocratic style.

Aslan Abashidze ousted

After Eduard Shevardnadze was overthrown as Georgian president and the results of the November 2003 Georgian parliamentary elections were annulled, a state of emergency was declared in Ajaria. Its leadership refused to recognise the full authority of Mikhail Saakashvili as Georgian president.

In May 2004, Mr Abashidze claimed that Georgian forces were preparing to invade. His forces blew up bridges connecting the region with the rest of Georgia. Mr Saakashvili ordered the Ajarian leader to comply with the Georgian constitution and start disarming or face removal.

Large numbers of demonstrators took to the streets of Batumi. In an echo of events in Tbilisi the previous autumn, Mr Abashidze resigned.

Russia then agreed to close its military base at Batumi in 2007. The base was a source of great tension between Moscow and Tbilisi.

When former autocratic leader Aslan Abashidze left the country following a showdown with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, his post was abolished.

In subsequent elections to the Ajarian assembly, Mr Saakashvili's party won 28 of the 30 seats. Their campaign promises included working to improve living standards and stamp out corruption. There were allegations of vote-rigging from Mr Saakashvili's former allies, the Republican Party, after they won less than 15 per cent of the vote.

Legislation passed by the Georgian parliament after the elections gives the assembly powers over local affairs. It states that the head of the region's government is nominated by the Georgian president, who also has powers to dissolve the assembly and government and to overrule the local authorities in the event of contravention of the Georgian constitution.

Since 2004 an ally of President Saakashvili, Levan Varshalomidze, has been chairman of the regional council of ministers.

The Ajarian authorities operate TV and radio networks in the region.

Reporters Without Borders, the media rights body, reported in 2004 that two private Georgian TV stations had been banned from operating in Ajaria. It added that five journalists had been physically assaulted.

Television

• Adjara TV - operated by Ajarian authorities
• Channel 25 - private

Radio

• Radio Adjara - operated by Ajarian authorities

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Official website
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites