Samegrelo
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Megrelia, Mingrelia or Samegrelo/Samargalo (Georgian: სამეგრელო Samegrelo; Mingrelian: სამარგალო Samargalo) is a historic province in the western part of Georgia, formerly also known as Odishi. Mingrelia is bordered by the secessionist region of Abkhazia to the north-west, Svaneti to the north, Imereti to the east, Guria to the south and the Black Sea to the west.
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[edit] Geography
Administratively, the historic province of Mingrelia is incorporated joined with the northern part of the neighboring mountainous province of Svaneti to form the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, the capital of which is Mingrelia's main city, Zugdidi.
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[edit] Population
The Mingrelians are an ethnic subgroup of the Georgians who speak both the Mingrelian language and Georgian, but use only the Georgian written language.
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[edit] History
In ancient times Mingrelia was a major part of the kingdom of Colchis (9th-6th centuries BC) and its successor Egrisi (4th century BC-6th century AD). In the 11th-15th centuries, Mingrelia was a part of the united Kingdom of Georgia. From the 16th century to 1857, the independent Principality of Mingrelia was under the rule of the House of Dadiani and was a tributary to the Ottoman Empire and then an autonomous entity under the Russian Empire. Between 1857 and 1867 it was absorbed by the Russian empire.
In December 1803, the principality came under the patronage of the Russian Empire by an agreement between the Tsar and the Mingrelian Prince Grigol Dadiani. In 1857, the principality was abolished officially by the Tsarist Russian Empire. From 1918 to 1921, Mingrelia was part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG). In 1921, Georgia was Sovietized and later became part of the Soviet Union, as the Georgian SSR. On April 9, 1991, independence was restored to Georgia, of which Mingrelia is now part.
The first President of an independent Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was a Mingrelian. After the violent Coup d'etat of December 21, 1991-January 6, 1992, Mingrelia became the centre of a civil war, which ended with the defeat of Gamsakhurdia's Mingrelian supporters. Even so, this region was unmanageable by the central government throughout the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze (1992-2003). Stability in the region is further deteriorated by the fact that the Georgian refugees from the Abkhazian war zone (who are considered by Georgians as victims of ethnic cleansing) are mostly Mingrelians. After the Rose Revolution of November, 2003, in 2004, newly elected Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, who vowed to resolve the conflict with the breakaway region of Abkhazia solely by peaceful means, disarmed groups of Mingrelians who tried to fight a guerrilla war against the Abkhazians by incursions from Mingrelia.
[edit] Notable Mingrelians
- Lavrenti Beria, Soviet dictator Stalin's chief of secret police
- Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, one of the most influential Georgian writers of the 20th century
- Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first president of post-Soviet Georgia
[edit] References
[edit] See also
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