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Ajaria Ajaria (Georgian აჭარა Ačara), officially the Ajarian Autonomous Republic (also known as Ajara, Adjaria, and Adzharia), is a political unit of Georgia. It is located on the south-eastern coast of the Black Sea and extends into the wooded foothills of the Caucasus. The Ajarians are ethnic Georgians who profess Islam. History Adjara has been part of Georgia since ancient times. The Seljuk Turks invaded in the 11th century AD and the Mongols in the 13th century. Georgia lost this territory to the Ottomans in the 17th century, during which time many of its people were forcibly converted to Islam. In 1878, it was annexed by Russia. After World War I, its strategic position on the eastern Black Sea coast led to it being contested by a number of major powers, with the territory temporarily being occupied by Turkey, Germany, and Britain. But after British troops left Batum in 1920 Adjara only briefly formed part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21), before being subsumed into the Soviet Union, ceded by Kemal Atatrk to Lenin's Bolsheviks in a Turco-Soviet treaty signed in Kars (Turkey) in 1921. Under Soviet rule, the region surrounding the port of Batumi was reorganized as the Ajar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, a constituent republic first of the Transcaucasian SFSR, then of the Georgian SSR. The reasons for this division were not ethnic, since the Ajars and Georgians are of same ethnic origins. It is thought that Moscow wanted to avoid giving Georgia complete control of the important Black Sea port of Batumi and to bolster Communist leanings among the ethnic Georgian Muslims, who were still living in Turkey. With the collapse of the USSR., after first democratic, multiparty Parliamentary elections of October 28 1990, the appointed Chairman of the Supreme Council of Adjara, Aslan Abashidze, was elected Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia. Following the election of Georgian President Zviad Gamsukhurida, Abashidze was appointed as the head of the Supreme Council. Abashidze then embarked upon a process of revitalisation, using funds from European organisations to build schools, roads and hospitals. While the rest of Georgia was snared in two civil wars, Adjara remained an oasis of reconstruction and economic development. Under his leadership the oil industry flourished through the involvement of Danish businessman Jan Bonde Nielsen who invested over $200m into the region. Relations between the central and regional authorities were strained. Georgia's ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze visited the region several times during his rule between 1992-2003 to attempt a reconciliation with Abashidze. The latter's party, the Union of Democratic Revival of Georgia, cooperated with Shevardnadze's ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia party in the 1995 parliamentary elections, but broke with Shevardnadze after the elections. Abashidze's Revival Party had thirty members in the Georgian parliament, and was seen as a moderate opposition to the central government in Tbilisi. After the rigged elections of 2003 and the ensuing "Rose Revolution" in Georgia, Abashidze described the November 2003 ouster of Shevardnadze as "a coup d'etat" . However, Abashidze made a publicized rejection of calls for Adjara to decisively secede from Georgia, posted in his tightly-controlled local press, and the Georgian government likewise promised to "respect all the demands and interests of the autonomous republic". On January 4, 2004, Mikhail Saakashvili, the leader of the United National Movement (UNM), won the new national presidential elections with a majority of 96.7 per cent. Although Abashidze had expressed reservations about Saakaskvili's political platform - particularly his pledge peacefully to resolve the separatist disputes affecting Georgia - Adjara nonetheless participated in the elections. Right after the elections, Russia waived visa requirements for citizens of Adjara, though not for other Georgians, reinforcing the region's autonomy, and Abashidze declared a "state of emergency" and closed all interior borders with Georgia. Following his inauguration at the end of January, Saakashvili visited Batumi and met with Aslan Abashidze. Relations between the two men deteriorated rapidly thereafter, with Abashidze, who always rejected separatism, increasingly critical of Saakashvili's nationalist and aggressive stance. The central authorities mobilised forces in apparent preparations for a military confrontation. At the end of April 2004, Georgia held military manoeuvers near the region. In response, on May 1, 2004, the three bridges connecting Adjara with the rest of Georgia over the Choloki River were blown up by Abashidze's forces. The tension brought thousands of pro-Saakashvili protesters onto the streets of Batumi in largely peaceful demostrations. This proved a catalyst for even larger demonstrations. Abashidze's position became untenable when Georgian troops landed in Batumi's second city Kobuleti and in the highland regions and advanced upon the capital. Fearing bloodshed Abashidze advised his supporters, who were demonstrating outside the main government building, to leave, and on May 5 he stepped down as regional leader and departed for Moscow. External Links
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