Master’s Degree
Teacher
European School
Tbilisi, Georgia
nino.kotolashvili@europeanschool.ge

The Status of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara: Religion, Security, and Identity Politics

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), Georgia faced violent separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and the so-called South Ossetia and has not yet regained effective state control. Despite its autonomous status, distinct religious composition, and border location, Adjara has remained under Georgian control.

The aim of this study is to identify the historical, religious, geopolitical, and institutional factors that contributed to the relatively peaceful integration of Adjara in the post-Soviet period. The research examines the period beginning in 1878, when Adjara shifted from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire, through the Soviet-era creation of the Adjara ASSR, and up to developments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The study highlights the role of Islam in shaping regional identity, which did not evolve into separatist nationalism. It also reviews the impact of the 1921 Treaty of Kars and the Soviet Union’s ethno-federal policy as instruments of institutional and geopolitical compromise. Furthermore, it explores the unique configuration of power under Aslan Abashidze in the 1990s and early 2000s, which secured authoritarian rule without separatist demands.

Ultimately, the case of Adjara demonstrates how ethno-linguistic identity, geopolitical pragmatism, and institutional mechanisms of containment functioned as key factors in peaceful integration and conflict prevention in the post-Soviet Caucasus.

 

Keywords: Adjara, autonomy, state building, geopolitics