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76-614: Tskaltubo or Tsqaltubo ( Georgian : წყალტუბო ) is a spa resort in west-central Georgia . It is the main town of the Tsqaltubo Municipality of the Imereti province. It is known for its radon - carbonate mineral springs , whose natural temperature of 33–35 °C (91–95 °F) enables the water to be used without preliminary heating. The resort's focus is on balneotherapy for circulatory, nervous, musculo-skeletal, gynaecological and skin diseases, but since

152-457: A vigesimal numeric system like Basque and (partially) French . Numbers greater than 20 and less than 100 are described as the sum of the greatest possible multiple of 20 plus the remainder. For example, "93" literally translates as 'four times twenty plus thirteen' ( ოთხმოცდაცამეტი , otkhmotsdatsamet’i ). One of the most important Georgian dictionaries is the Explanatory dictionary of

228-569: A Roman grammarian from the 2nd century AD. The first direct attestations of the language are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, and the oldest surviving literary work is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli . The emergence of Georgian as a written language appears to have been the result of the Christianization of Georgia in the mid-4th century, which led to

304-665: A capital-like effect called Mtavruli for titles and inscriptions. Georgian is an agglutinative language with a complex verb structure that can include up to eight morphemes , exhibiting polypersonalism . The language has seven noun cases and employs a left-branching structure with adjectives preceding nouns and postpositions instead of prepositions. Georgian lacks grammatical gender and articles, with definite meanings established through context. Georgian's rich derivation system allows for extensive noun and verb formation from roots, with many words featuring initial consonant clusters. The Georgian writing system has evolved from ancient scripts to

380-671: A comfortable temperature for bathing (35 °C), allowing them to be directly transferred from springs to the baths without cooling or heating. The "Spring No. 6", is the largest thermal bath working today. It was built in 1950 exclusively for Joseph Stalin , leader of the Soviet Union at the time. Private baths and dachas of Stalin and Lavrenti Beria are still kept in the city. The mineral water flows directly into Buildings #1 and #6. There are five pools of mineral water, 37 individual cabins for bathing mineral water and 17 hydro-massage cabinets. Samgurali Tskaltubo , founded in 1945,

456-607: A major "military operation" to force Georgian troops out of the Kodori Gorge, which they still controlled. As a result of this attack, Georgian troops were driven out of Abkhazia entirely. On August 26, 2008, the Russian Federation officially recognized both South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. In response to Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Georgian government announced that

532-535: A project plan for the town where sanatoriums form a circle around a park, recreation and balneology facilities. Tskaltubo was divided into the following zones: balneological, sanitarian and living. In 1953, Tskaltubo became the important spa-resort during the Soviet times. At different times, there were built 19 sanatoriums and pensions, nine baths, resort park, Branch of Scientific Institute of balneology and physiotherapy. As one of Georgia's flagship historic spa towns,

608-490: A ri means 'friend'; megobrebi ( megob Ø rebi ) means 'friends', with the loss of a in the last syllable of the word stem. Georgian has seven noun cases: nominative , ergative , dative , genitive , instrumental , adverbial and vocative . An interesting feature of Georgian is that, while the subject of a sentence is generally in the nominative case and the object is in the accusative case (or dative), one can find this reversed in many situations (this depends mainly on

684-399: A row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნ ი gvprtskvni 'you peel us' and მწვრთნ ელი mts’vrtneli 'trainer'. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice and suggests this may be one cue distinguishing ejectives from their aspirated and voiced counterparts. Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently

760-761: A wide over-representation to the Abkhazians in the local Supreme Council , with Abkhazians, while being only 18% of the population, getting the largest portion of seats. According to this settlement, the 65 seats in the Supreme Soviet were allocated to different ethnic groups; 28 were reserved for Abkhazians , 26 for Georgians (46% of the total population) and 11 for the other ethnic groups. The elections were held in September 1991 and resulted in Vladislav Ardzinba being appointed as Chairman of

836-589: A word. Georgian vowels in non-initial syllables are pronounced with a shorter duration compared to vowels in initial syllables. long polysyllabic words may have a secondary stress on their third or fourth syllable. Georgian contains many "harmonic clusters" involving two consonants of a similar type (voiced, aspirated, or ejective) that are pronounced with only a single release; e.g. ბგ ერა bgera 'sound', ცხ ოვრება tskhovreba 'life', and წყ ალი ts’q’ali 'water'. There are also frequent consonant clusters , sometimes involving more than six consonants in

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912-615: A written language began with the Christianization of Georgia in the 4th century. Georgian phonology features a rich consonant system, including aspirated, voiced, and ejective stops , affricates , and fricatives . Its vowel system consists of five vowels with varying realizations. Georgian prosody involves weak stress, with disagreements among linguists on its placement. The language's phonotactics include complex consonant clusters and harmonic clusters. The Mkhedruli script , dominant in modern usage, corresponds closely to Georgian phonemes and has no case distinction, though it employs

988-542: A year, however, there are numerous restoration projects to promote the regeneration of this historic spa town. Tskaltubo is located in the central part of west Georgia, in the lowland, at the foot of the Southern Caucasus , 98 meters above the sea-level, in the valley of the river Tskaltubo. It is located 9 km away from Kutaisi and 240 km from the Georgian capital Tbilisi . The climate in Tskaltubo

1064-472: Is because syllables in the language often begin with two consonants. Recordings are available on the relevant Wiktionary entries, linked to below. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : Abkhaz%E2%80%93Georgian conflict 1992–1993: 12,162 1998: 25—300 2008: 3 The Abkhazia conflict is a territorial dispute over Abkhazia , a region on the eastern coast of

1140-535: Is one the country's top football teams. Georgian language Georgian is most closely related to the Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ) and more distantly to Svan . Georgian has various dialects , with standard Georgian based on the Kartlian dialect, and all dialects are mutually intelligible. The history of Georgian spans from Early Old Georgian in the 5th century, to Modern Georgian today. Its development as

1216-947: Is rather light, and in fact Georgian transliterates the tenuis stops in foreign words and names with the ejectives. The coronal occlusives ( /tʰ tʼ d n/ , not necessarily affricates) are variously described as apical dental, laminal alveolar, and "dental". Per Canepari, the main realizations of the vowels are [ i ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ], [ o̞ ], [ u ]. Aronson describes their realizations as [ i̞ ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ] (but "slightly fronted"), [ o̞ ], [ u̞ ]. Shosted transcribed one speaker's pronunciation more-or-less consistently with [ i ], [ ɛ ], [ ɑ ], [ ɔ ], [ u ]. Allophonically, [ ə ] may be inserted to break up consonant clusters, as in /dɡas/ [dəɡäs] . In casual speech, /iV, Vi/ sequences can be realized phonetically as [jV~i̯V, Vj~Vi̯]. Phrase-final unstressed vowels may sometimes be partially reduced. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm. Stress

1292-401: Is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words. Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word and near the end of a phrase. According to Borise, Georgian has fixed initial word-level stress cued primarily by greater syllable duration and intensity of the initial syllable of

1368-403: Is warm and moderately mild. The average annual temperature is +15C, and average annual precipitation is 76%. Winters here are warm and mild. Tskaltubo is rich with karst caves. Such as “Satsurblia", "Prometheus" and "Sataplia" which provide visitors with breathtaking examples of stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, petrified waterfalls, cave pearls, underground rivers, and lakes. The temperature in

1444-678: Is your home, as well, and here you will always be able to find support and understanding", he said. On July 9, 2012, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution at its annual session in Monaco , underlining Georgia's territorial integrity and referring to breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories . The resolution "urges the Government and the Parliament of the Russian Federation, as well as

1520-458: The Dittionario giorgiano e italiano . These were meant to help western Catholic missionaries learn Georgian for evangelical purposes. On the left are IPA symbols, and on the right are the corresponding letters of the modern Georgian alphabet, which is essentially phonemic. Former /qʰ/ ( ჴ ) has merged with /x/ ( ხ ), leaving only the latter. The glottalization of the ejectives

1596-499: The Mkhedruli script is almost completely dominant; the others are used mostly in religious documents and architecture. Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use; a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language. According to the traditional account written down by Leonti Mroveli in

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1672-631: The 1998 War in Abkhazia and the 2008 Russo-Georgian War . The conflict, one of the bloodiest in the post-Soviet era, remains unresolved. The Georgian government has offered substantial autonomy to Abkhazia several times. However, both the Abkhaz government and the opposition in Abkhazia refuse any form of union with Georgia. Abkhaz regard their independence as the result of a war of liberation from Georgia, while Georgians believe that historically Abkhazia has always formed part of Georgia. Georgians formed

1748-503: The Antiquity , various tribes were recorded on the territory today known as Abkhazia: Moschi , Sanigs , Misimians , Apsilae and Abasgois . Moschi, Sanigs and Misimians were known to have Georgian ( Kartvelian ) origin, while origin of Apsilae and Abasgois is disputed, with some scholars considering them to be Kartvelian tribes, while others regard them as being ancestors of people today called as Abkhazians . Throughout Antiquity,

1824-740: The Black Sea in the South Caucasus , at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia . The conflict involves Georgia , the Russian Federation and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia , which is internationally recognised only by Russia, Venezuela , Nicaragua , Nauru , and Syria ; Georgia and all other United Nations members consider Abkhazia a sovereign territory of Georgia. However, as of 2023, Georgia lacks de facto control over

1900-841: The Democratic Republic of Georgia , which ousted the Bolshevik rebels in Sokhumi with the National Guard of Georgia . Abkhazia joined Democratic Republic of Georgia as an autonomous entity. This later led to the Sochi conflict between Georgia and Soviet Russia over ownership of Abkhazia and the territories of the former Black Sea Governorate . Georgia managed to repulse the Red Army from Abkhazia but conceded to Russian claims over Sochi and Tuapse . In 1920, Psou river

1976-516: The Georgian Orthodox Church and together are called Khutsuri 'priest alphabet'. In Mkhedruli , there is no case. Sometimes, however, a capital-like effect, called Mtavruli ('title' or 'heading'), is achieved by modifying the letters so that their vertical sizes are identical and they rest on the baseline with no descenders. These capital-like letters are often used in page headings, chapter titles, monumental inscriptions, and

2052-457: The Kartlian dialect. Over the centuries, it has exerted a strong influence on the other dialects. As a result, they are all, generally, mutually intelligible with standard Georgian, and with one another. The history of the Georgian language is conventionally divided into the following phases: The earliest extant references to Georgian are found in the writings of Marcus Cornelius Fronto ,

2128-624: The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and subsequently became independent as the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) governed by Georgian Mensheviks , while Abkhazia fell under control of a group of local Bolsheviks and the Red Army of Russia following a Bolshevik-led rebellion against the local Abkhazian self-government, Abkhaz People's Council (APC). This forced the APC to request aid from

2204-604: The ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia . The agreement in Moscow ended hostilities in 1994, however, this would not last. In April–May 1998, the conflict escalated once again in the Gali District when several hundred Abkhaz forces entered the villages still populated by Georgians to support the separatist-held parliamentary elections. Despite criticism from the opposition, Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia , refused to deploy troops against Abkhazia. A ceasefire

2280-515: The 10th century, Kingdom of Abkhazia played an important role in Unification of the Georgian realm . Through dynastic succession, Bagrat Bagrationi united Kingdom of Abkhazia , Southern Georgian Kingdom of the Iberians and Eastern Georgian territories of Kartli under single political entity, Kingdom of Georgia . Duchy of Tskhumi was established on the territory of Abkhazia, which later

2356-457: The 11th century, the first Georgian script was created by the first ruler of the Kingdom of Iberia , Pharnavaz , in the 3rd century BC. The first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD. There are now three Georgian scripts, called Asomtavruli 'capitals', Nuskhuri 'small letters', and Mkhedruli . The first two are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of

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2432-678: The 1570s, the Ottoman navy occupied the fort of Tskhumi on the Abkhazian coastline, turning it into the Turkish fortress of Suhum-Kale (hence, the modern name of the city of Sukhumi ). In 1555, Georgia and the whole South Caucasus became divided between the Ottoman and Safavid Persian empires per the Peace of Amasya , with Abkhazia, along with all of western Georgia, remaining in the hands of

2508-467: The 1970s its repertoire has included " speleotherapy ", in which the cool dust-free environment of local caves is said to benefit pulmonary diseases. Tskaltubo was especially popular in the Soviet era, attracting around 125,000 visitors a year. Bathhouse 9 features a frieze of Stalin , and visitors can see the private pool where he bathed on his visits. Currently the spa receives only some 700 visitors

2584-653: The Abkhazian National Guard that was mono-ethnically Abkhaz, and on 24 June 1992, attacked the building of the Abkhazian Interior Ministry, a last stronghold of Georgian authority in Abkhazia, severely beating the ethnic Georgian minister Givi Lominadze and installing Abkhaz Alexander Ankvab . These events led to a split in the Supreme Council between Georgian and Abkhazian factions and forced the Georgian faction to boycott

2660-616: The Abkhazian Supreme Council. Ardzinba, who was a charismatic but excitable figure popular among the Abkhaz, was believed by Georgians to have helped to instigate the anti-Georgian violence of July 1989 . Ardzinba exploited the Georgian Civil War which began in December 1991 to consolidate his power and launched a practice of replacing ethnic Georgians in leading positions with the Abkhaz. Ardzinba created

2736-650: The Abkhazian kings were Georgian in culture and language. The kingdom is frequently referred in modern history writing as the Egrisi-Abkhazian kingdom due to the fact that medieval authors viewed the new monarchy as a successor state of Egrisi and sometimes used the terms interchangeably. In order to eliminate the Byzantine religious influence, the dynasty subordinated the local dioceses to the Georgian Orthodox patriarchate of Mtskheta . In

2812-528: The Chairman of the Ministerial Council to safeguard the rights and freedoms of expression. In response to this appeal, the Abkhaz authorities imposed a ban on radio broadcasts concerning the Georgian language and interfered with the editorial policies of journalists. Although the government managed to end the violence and maintain peace at that time, the conflict developed further and resulted in

2888-568: The Georgian language ( ქართული ენის განმარტებითი ლექსიკონი ). It consists of eight volumes and about 115,000 words. It was produced between 1950 and 1964, by a team of linguists under the direction of Arnold Chikobava . Georgian has a word derivation system, which allows the derivation of nouns from verb roots both with prefixes and suffixes, for example: It is also possible to derive verbs from nouns: Likewise, verbs can be derived from adjectives, for example: In Georgian many nouns and adjectives begin with two or more contiguous consonants. This

2964-549: The Ottomans. As a result, Abkhazia came under the increasing influence of Turkey and Islam , gradually losing its cultural and religious ties with the rest of Georgia. According to the Soviet historical science, Turkey, after the conquest has aimed at obliterating the material and spiritual culture of Abkhazia and forcibly convert the population to Islam. Following the Russian Revolutions, Georgia initially joined

3040-569: The Soviet Union, while Abkhazians wanted to remain in the Soviet Union . On 18 March 1989, a group of Abkhazian intellectuals wrote letter to the Kremlin , expressing their desire to upgrade the status of Abkhazia to independent SSR within the Soviet Union or join Russia as an autonomous republic. This is known as Lykhny appeal . According to the 1979 Soviet Census , Georgians made up 45.7% of

3116-483: The Western Georgia. The latter consisted of three principalities: Principality of Mingrelia , Principality of Guria and Principality of Abkhazia . Eventually Kingdom of Imereti declined due to power struggle within its ruling elites and constant Ottoman invasions, leading to these principalities gaining semi-independent status as they frequently acted independently and at times titled themselves as kings. In

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3192-630: The area. Another factor in Tskaltubo is its architecture which is basically a synthesis of Stalinist period classical style and of Georgian ethnic decor with Gothic and Roman features. The "Waters of Immortality" in Tskaltubo were probably known already in the 7th-9th centuries, when the oldest historical records are dated. Since the 18th century several foreign researchers gave word of the healing properties of these springs: Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science (1782); J. Klaproth (1815); A. Jolenberg (1897). By 1920, after chemical analysis had revealed

3268-592: The attempts to alter pre-war demographic composition and called for the "rapid development of a timetable to ensure the prompt voluntary return of all refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes." On August 10, 2008, the Russo-Georgian War spread to Abkhazia, where separatist rebels and the Russian air force launched an all-out attack on Georgian forces. Abkhazia's pro-Moscow separatist President Sergei Bagapsh said that his troops had launched

3344-474: The cave is always 13-15C. Satsurblia cave is the first and only Speleotherapic - object in the Caucasus Region. The cave has unique climatic environment that gives it the ability be transformed to a recreational tourism destination for individuals with respiratory diseases ( e.g. Bronchial asthma, etc.). Speleotherapy , or underground climate-therapy, is a set of recreational therapy methods based on

3420-403: The character of the verb). This is called the dative construction . In the past tense of the transitive verbs, and in the present tense of the verb "to know", the subject is in the ergative case. Georgian has a rich word-derivation system. By using a root, and adding some definite prefixes and suffixes, one can derive many nouns and adjectives from the root. For example, from the root - kart -,

3496-807: The country cut all diplomatic relations with Russia and that it left the Commonwealth of Independent States. Relations between Georgia and Abkhazia have remained tense after the war. Georgia has moved to increase Abkhazia's isolation by imposing a sea blockade of Abkhazia. During the opening ceremony of a new building of the Georgian Embassy in Kyiv ( Ukraine ) in November 2009, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated that residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia could also use its facilities. "I would like to assure you, my dear friends, that this

3572-458: The current Mkhedruli, used for most purposes. The language has a robust grammatical framework with unique features such as syncope in morphophonology and a left-branching syntax. Georgian's vocabulary is highly derivational, allowing for diverse word formations, while its numeric system is vigesimal. No claimed genetic links between the Kartvelian languages and any other language family in

3648-637: The de facto authorities of Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia, to allow the European Union Monitoring Mission unimpeded access to the occupied territories." It also said that the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was "concerned about the humanitarian situation of the displaced persons both in Georgia and in the occupied territories of Abkhazia, Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia, as well as the denial of

3724-501: The dissolution of the Soviet Union, and currently the spa town only receives approximately 700 visitors a year. Since 1993 many of the sanatorium complexes have been devoted to housing some 9000 refugees, primarily women and children, displaced from their homes by the conflict in nearby Abkhazia . There have been a number of plans and projects to renovate and reconstitute Tskaltubo as a major resort. The unique radon-carbonated waters are Tskaltubo's major mineral resource. They emerge at

3800-437: The ethnic cleansing of Georgians, which UN General Assembly Resolution GA/10708 also mentions. The UN Security Council has passed a series of resolutions in which it appeals for a cease-fire. The written history of Abkhazia largely begins with the colonization by Ancient Greeks of its coast in the 6th-5th centuries BC. During this time, the territory was part of the western Georgian kingdom of Colchis ( Egrisi ). During

3876-546: The first time since 2001. In late July the 2006 Kodori crisis erupted, resulting in the establishment of the de jure Government of Abkhazia in Kodori . For the first time after the war, this government was located in Abkhazia, and it was headed by Malkhaz Akishbaia , Temur Mzhavia and Ada Marshania . On May 15, 2008 United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising the right of all refugees to return to Abkhazia and reclaim their property rights. It regretted

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3952-498: The following words can be derived: Kart veli ('a Georgian person'), Kart uli ('the Georgian language') and Sa kart velo ('the country of Georgia'). Most Georgian surnames end in - dze 'son' (Western Georgia), - shvili 'child' (Eastern Georgia), - ia (Western Georgia, Samegrelo ), - ani (Western Georgia, Svaneti ), - uri (Eastern Georgia), etc. The ending - eli is a particle of nobility, comparable to French de , Dutch van , German von or Polish - ski . Georgian has

4028-498: The like. This is the Georgian standard keyboard layout. The standard Windows keyboard is essentially that of manual typewriters . Georgian is an agglutinative language . Certain prefixes and suffixes can be joined in order to build a verb. In some cases, one verb can have up to eight different morphemes in it at the same time. An example is ageshenebinat ('you [all] should've built [it]'). The verb can be broken down to parts: a-g-e-shen-eb-in-a-t . Each morpheme here contributes to

4104-472: The meaning of the verb tense or the person who has performed the verb. The verb conjugation also exhibits polypersonalism ; a verb may potentially include morphemes representing both the subject and the object. In Georgian morphophonology , syncope is a common phenomenon. When a suffix (especially the plural suffix - eb -) is attached to a word that has either of the vowels a or e in the last syllable, this vowel is, in most words, lost. For example, megob

4180-409: The name " Abkhazia ", which is used today in most foreign languages. It was used to denote whole Abasgia (Byzantine name for the territory). The medieval Kingdom of Abkhazia managed to unite whole Western Georgia into a single political entity and transferred its capital to the Georgian city of Kutaisi . Although the origin of this kingdom's ruling family is still disputed, most scholars agree that

4256-509: The next years in what is often referred as "war of laws". In 1991, Georgia refused to take part in referendum to preserve the Soviet Union as a renewed federation, opting to hold an independence referendum , which led to a declaration of independence . However, Abkhazia defied Tbilisi and took part in the Soviet referendum , which was boycotted by the Georgian population of Abkhazia. In order to defuse tensions, newly elected Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia agreed on an arrangement to grant

4332-563: The population of Abkhazia, while Abkhazians were 17.8%. In response to the appeal, the Georgian anti-Soviet groups organized a series of unsanctioned meetings across Georgia, claiming that the Soviet government was using Abkhaz separatism in order to oppose the Georgia's pro-independence movement. The peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi was suppressed by the Soviet Army on 9 April 1989, which is known today as April 9 tragedy . In July 1989,

4408-475: The problem only by diplomacy and political talks. Georgia decried the unlimited issuing of Russian passports in Abkhazia with subsequent payment of retirement pensions and other monetary benefits by Russia, which Georgia considers to be economic support of separatists by the Russian government. In May 2006 the Coordinating Council of Georgia's Government and Abkhaz separatists was convened for

4484-640: The replacement of Aramaic as the literary language . By the 11th century, Old Georgian had developed into Middle Georgian. The most famous work of this period is the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin , written by Shota Rustaveli in the 12th century. In 1629, a certain Nikoloz Cholokashvili authored the first printed books written (partially) in Georgian, the Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum cum Oratione and

4560-462: The riots started in Abkhazia with the Abkhaz protest against an opening of a branch of Tbilisi State University in Sukhumi, and concluded with the looting of the Georgian school which was expected to house the new university on 16 July 1989. The ensuing violence quickly degenerated into a large-scale inter-ethnic confrontation. The first case of inter-ethnic violence in Georgia, it effectively marked

4636-456: The separatist decision contradicted the opinion of the majority of Abkhazian population. Meanwhile, the Abkhaz leader Vladislav Ardzinba intensified his ties with hard-line Russian politicians and military elite and declared he was ready for a war with Georgia. Russia used Abkhaz and also South Ossetian separatists as its ethnically-based proxies to inflame ethnic conflicts in Georgia, undermine Georgian independence and assert Russia's control over

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4712-506: The sessions. In turn, On 23 July 1992, the Abkhazian faction of the Supreme Council, without a quorum , passed a resolution on restoring the 1925 Abkhazian constitution, declaring a "sovereign state" from Georgia. On 25 July 1992, State Council of the Republic of Georgia , a governing body of Georgia at that time, responded with a special resolution, which nullified this declaration, with Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze pointing out that

4788-477: The single largest ethnic group in pre-1993 Abkhazia, with a 45.7% plurality as of 1989. During the war the Abkhaz separatist side carried out an ethnic cleansing campaign which resulted in the expulsion of up to 250,000 and in the killing of more than 5,000 ethnic Georgians. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) conventions of Lisbon , Budapest and Istanbul have officially recognized

4864-496: The start of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. The July events in Abkhazia left at least 18 dead and 448 injured, of whom, according to official accounts, 302 were Georgians. The local Abkhaz authorities endeavored to regulate the flow of information by censoring newspaper articles and television programs deemed to threaten the peace of multiethnic autonomy. On August 15, 1990, the Georgian section of Abkhazian radio appealed to

4940-681: The strategically important South Caucasus. The conflict eventually devolved into a war, which lasted for 13 months, beginning in August, 1992, with Georgian government forces and a militia composed of ethnic Georgians who lived in Abkhazia and separatist forces consisting of ethnic Abkhazians and Armenians who also lived in Abkhazia. The separatists were supported by the North Caucasian and Cossack militants and (unofficially) by Russian forces stationed in Gudauta . The conflict resulted in

5016-732: The territory was controlled by Pontus , the Roman Empire , and the Byzantine Empire . Local tribes played a huge role into consolidation of local population into single unit. They managed to break free from the Byzantine Empire in the 8th century and establish their independent kingdom. During this time, the term " Apkhazeti " first appeared in the Georgian annals , which is of Mingrelian (Western Georgian) origin, "Apkha" meaning back or shoulder. The term gave rise to

5092-409: The territory. The beginning of the conflict dates back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; however, the dispute can be traced to 1918—1919 Abkhazia conflict over Sukhumi okrug (which corresponds to the Abkhazia region) between the Georgian Democratic Republic , White Russia and the Russian SFSR . Since 1989, the conflict has involved several wars: the 1992—1993 War in Abkhazia ,

5168-412: The town is still popular for the qualities of its waters. Tskaltubo mineral waters are famous for their stable physical and chemical composition and they are categorized as slight radon chloride –magnesium waters. The high-performance spa preventive effect of mineral waters is conditioned by their complex content and particular fusion of salt components. In Tskaltubo the bath taking has a peculiar technique,

5244-468: The treatment take place under the constant running water ( mineral water constantly flows in and out of the spa) and the water permanently preserves physical-chemical and mineral compositions. The water consists of six components and it penetrates into the human body via pores. Constituent ingredients in number are far below the permissible minimum, temperature of water is 33-35 °C, it is very soft, pure and odorless. Visitor numbers to Tsqaltubo dwindled after

5320-463: The uniqueness of the water, Tskaltubo was officially declared a medical spa resort and achieve the status of city in 1953. In 1920 the territory of Tskaltubo became state property and it acquired the function of balneology resort. The building of the resort started in 1926. In 1931, a decree by the government of Georgian Soviet Republic designed Tskaltubo as a spa resort and balneology center. In 1950-1951, architects I. Zaalishvili and V. Kedia prepared

5396-440: The use of underground microclimate to improve health. Prometheus cave is one of the longest caves in Georgia. Visitors can see halls of Argonauts, Colchis, Medea, Love, and Prometheus and of Iberia, the excursion can be finished by foot or by a 15-minute boat ride an underground river. Sataplia reserve is known for its footprints of dinosaurs. The reserve also has a karst caves. There is a transparent platform that gives views of

5472-399: The world are accepted in mainstream linguistics. Among the Kartvelian languages, Georgian is most closely related to the so-called Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ); glottochronological studies indicate that it split from the latter approximately 2700 years ago. Svan is a more distant relative that split off much earlier, perhaps 4000 years ago. Standard Georgian is largely based on

5548-635: Was agreed as a new state border between Soviet Russia and Georgia. This corresponds to the modern internationally recognized Georgia–Russia border . In 1921, Abkhazia was granted the status of the autonomous republic within the Georgian Democratic Republic. In 1921, the Red Army invaded Georgia and toppled the Menshevik government of the DRG. Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (GSSR) was established under Bolshevik government, which

5624-644: Was later incorporated into the USSR . In exchange for support for Bolsheviks in Abkhazia, the Soviet government agreed to increase the autonomy of Abkhazia. In 1921, Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia was created. However, it was not separate from Georgia and its status was defined as a treaty republic of GSSR. In 1931, status of Abkhazia was again downgraded to the autonomous republic, with Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic being established. Tensions between Abkhazians and Georgians began to escalate in 1980s as Georgians increasingly pushed for independence from

5700-528: Was negotiated on May 20. The hostilities resulted in hundreds of casualties from both sides and an additional 20,000 Georgian refugees. In September 2001, around 400 Chechen fighters and 80 Georgian guerrillas appeared in the Kodori Valley . The Chechen-Georgian paramilitaries advanced as far as Sukhumi, but finally were repelled by the Abkhazian forces. The new Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili promised not to use force and to resolve

5776-665: Was transformed into Duchy of Abkhazia. The Kingdom became the largest entity in the Caucasus by the 12th century. However, in the late 15th century, the civil strife within the Kingdom of Georgia led to its dissolution . Various new Georgian kingdoms arose in its place, such as Kingdom of Kakheti and Kingdom of Kartli in the Eastern Georgia, Samtskhe-Saatabago in the Southern Georgia and Kingdom of Imereti in

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