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'Sukhumi' (Abkhaz: , 'Aqwa'; , 'Sokhumi', , 'Sukhumi') is the capital of Abkhazia, a ''de facto'' independent republic, which is internationally recognized as being an autonomous republic within Georgia. The city has a long and eventful history. It suffered heavily during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s.

Contents

Naming

General information

History

Monuments

Gallery of Sukhumi

References

See also

External links

Naming

In Georgian, the city is spelled Sokhumi (), a spelling used by some English sources as well, incuding ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''^[1] and ''MSN Encarta''^[2]. However, the most widely used name for the city is ''Sukhumi'', a Russian transliteration of the city's official name. Another Abkhaz variant of the city's name, when they speak and write Russian, is 'Sukhum' (, a spelling once preferred in Imperial Russia^[3]).

General information

Sukhumi is located on a wide bay of the eastern coast of the Black Sea and serves as a port, rail junction and a holiday resort. It is known for its beaches, sanatoriums, mineral-water spas and semitropical climate. Sukhumi is also an important air link for Abkhazia as the Sukhumi Dranda Airport is located nearby the city. Sukhumi contains a number of small-to-medium size hotels serving chiefly the Russian tourists. The city also maintains botanical gardens established in 1840.
The city has a number of research institutes, the State University of Abkhazia and the Sukhumi Branch of the Tbilisi State University (currently functioning in Tbilisi). In Soviet times, it contained a renowned ape breeding station. From 1945 to 1954 the city's electron physics laboratory was involved in the Soviet program to develop nuclear weapons.

History

The history of the city began in the mid-6th century BC when an earlier settlement of the second and early first millennia BC, frequented by local Colchian tribes, was replaced by the Milesian Greek colony of Dioscurias (Greek: Διοσκουριός), geographically the remotest that Miletus ever established. The city is said to have been so named for the Dioscuri, the twins Castor and Pollux of classical mythology. It became busily engaged in the commerce between Greece and the indigenous tribes, importing wares from many parts of Greece, and exporting local salt and Caucasian timber, linen, and hemp. It was also a prime center of slave trade in Colchis. The city and its surroundings were remarkable for the multitude of languages spoken in its bazaars.
Although the sea made serious inroads upon the territory of Dioscurias, it continued to flourish until its conquest by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus in the later second century BC. Under the Roman emperor Augustus (Greek: Σεβαστός) the city assumed the name of Sebastopolis or Savastapolis ^[4]. But its prosperity was past, and in the first century AD Pliny the Elder described the place as virtually deserted though the town still continued to exist during the times of Arrian in the 130s.^[5] The remains of towers and walls of Sebastopolis have been found underwater; on land the lowest levels so far reached by archaeologists are of the first and second centuries AD. In 542 the Romans evacuated the town and demolished its citadel to prevent it from being captured by Sassanid Iran. In 565, however, the emperor Justinian I restored the fort and Sebastopolis continued to remain one of the Byzantine strongholds in Colchis until being sacked by the Arab conqueror Marwan II in 736.

Afterwards, the town came to be known as Tskhumi, a toponym which is frequently related to the Svan for "hot".^[6] Georgian scholars sometimes explain it as meaning the "hornbeam tree" in Georgian. Restored by the kings of Abkhazia from the Arab devastation, it particularly flourished during Georgia’s "golden age" in the 12th-13th centuries, when Tskhumi became a center of traffic with the European maritime powers, particularly with the Republic of Genoa. The Genoese established their short-lived trading factory at Tskhumi early in the 14th century.
The Ottoman navy occupied the town in 1451, but for a short time. Later contested between the princes of Abkhazia and Mingrelia, Tskhumi finally fell to the Turks in the 1570s. The new masters heavily fortified the town and called it ''Sohumkale'', with ''kale'' meaning "fort" but the first part of the name of disputed origin. It may represent Turkish ''su'', "water", and ''kum'', "sand", but is more likely to be an alteration of its earlier Georgian name. At the request of the pro-Russian Abkhazian prince, the town was stormed by the Russian Marines in 1810 and turned, subsequently, into their major outpost in the North West Caucasus. Sukhumi was declared the seaport in 1847 and was directly annexed to the Russian Empire after the ruling Shervashidze princely dynasty was ousted by the Russian authorities in 1864. During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878, the town was temporarily controlled by the Ottoman forces and Abkhaz-Adyghe rebels.

Destroyed shop in Sukhumi

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the town and Abkhazia in general, engulfed into the chaos of the Russian Civil War. A short-lived Bolshevik government was suppressed in May 1918 and Sukhumi was incorporated into the Democratic Republic of Georgia as a residence of the autonomous People's Council of Abkhazia and the headquarters of the Georgian governor-general. The Red Army and the local revolutionaries took the city from the Georgian forces on March 4 1921, and declared Soviet rule. Sukhumi functioned as the capital of the "Union treaty" Abkhaz Soviet Socialist Republic associated with the Georgian SSR from 1921 until 1931, when it became the capital of the Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian SSR. By 1989, Sukhumi had 110,000 inhabitants and was one of the most prosperous cities of Georgia. Many holiday dachas for Soviet leaders were situated there.

Former Mayor of Sukhumi Guram Gabiskiria extensively tortured and killed by Abkhaz fighters on September 27, 1993 ^[7]

Sukhumi was a centre of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict from 1989 to 1993 which damaged much of the city. During the Abkhaz siege of Sukhumi (1992-1993), the city and its environs suffered almost daily air strikes and artillery shellings, with heavy civilian casualties.^[8] On September 27, 1993 the battle for Sukhumi was concluded by a full-scale campaign of the ethnic cleansing against its majority Georgian population (see Sukhumi Massacre), including members of Abkhaz government (Zhiuli Shartava, Raul Eshba, etc) and mayor of Sukhumi Guram Gabiskiria. Although the city has been relatively peaceful and partially rebuilt, it is still suffering the after-effects of the war, and it has not regained its earlier ethnic diversity.

Monuments

Sukhumi houses a number of historical monuments, notably the Beslet arcaded bridge built during the reign of queen Tamar of Georgia in the 12th century. It also retains visible vestiges of the defunct monuments, including the Roman walls, the 11th-century castle of Bagrat III, several towers of the Great Abkhazian Wall constructed by the early modern Mingrelian and Abkhazian princes amid their territorial disputes; the 14th-century Genoese fort, and the 18th-century Ottoman fortress. The 11th century Kaman Church (12 km from Sukhumi) is erected, according to tradition, over the tomb of Saint John Chrysostom. Some 22 km from Sukhumi lies New Athos with the ruins of the medieval city of Anacopia. The Neo-Byzantine New Athos Monastery was constructed here in the 1880s on behest of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Northward in the mountains is the Voronya Cave, the deepest in the world.

Gallery of Sukhumi

References

1. "Sokhumi". (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 6, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: [1]
2. "Sokhumi". (2006). In Encarta. Retrieved November 6, 2006: [2]
3. Мачавариани К.Д. Описательный путеводитель по городу Сухуму и Сухумскому округу с историко- этнографическим очерком. – Сухум. 1913
4. Hewitt, George (1998) ''The Abkhazians: a handbook'' St. Martin's Press, New York, p. 62, ISBN 031221975X
5. Dioscurias. ''A Guide to the Ancient World'', H.W. Wilson (1986). Retrieved 20 July 2006, from xreferplus.
6. Room, A. (2005), ''Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites''. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, ISBN 0-7864-2248-3, p. 361
7. Chervonnaia, Svetlana Mikhailovna. Conflict in the Caucasus: Georgia, Abkhazia, and the Russian Shadow. Gothic Image Publications, 1994
8. The Human Rights Watch report, March 1995 Vol. 7, No. 7

See also

★ 1989 Sukhumi riots

External links

★ Ancient coins of Dioscurias

★ Blog about Sukhumi

★ Apkhazeti.com