Everything about Poti totally explained
Poti is a
port city in
Georgia, located on the eastern
Black Sea coast in the
region of
Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of
ancient Greek colony of
Phasis, the city has become major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also a home to a main naval base and headquarters of the
Georgian navy. The
Poti port area is planned to become a
free economic zone within the framework of a Georgian-
United Arab Emirates project inaugurated in April 2008.
Geography and climate
Poti is situated 312 km west of Georgia’s capital
Tbilisi, in a marshy delta created by the major river of western Georgia, the
Rioni, at its entrance into the Black Sea. The city lies at an altitude of two meters above sea level. A portion of Poti's environs recovered from the marshes now accommodate citrus plantation. The city is surrounded with the
Kolkheti National Park. It is flanked by the small river Kaparchina to the south-east and the
lake Paliastomi to the south-west. Some 5 km to the south is the village
Maltaqva, a local beach resort. Climate is
humid subtropical, with mild and warm winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 14.1 °C; 2 °C in January, and 22.9 °C in July. Rainfall is abundant and reaches 1,960 mm per annum.
Etymology
The name Poti is apparently linked to Phasis, but the etymology is a matter of a scholarly dispute. "Phasis" is first recorded in
Hesiod's
Theogony (c. 700 BC) as a name of the
river, not a town. Since Erich Diehl, 1938, first suggested a non-Hellenic origin of the name and asserted that Phasis might have been a derivative of a local
hydronym, several explanations have been proposed, linking the name to the Georgian-
Zan *Poti,
Svan *Pasid, and even to a
Semitic word, meaning "a gold river."
History
Ancient and medieval history
The recorded history of Poti and its environs spans over 26 centuries. In
Classical antiquity and
early Middle Ages, the area was occupied by the
Greek polis of
Phasis which was established by the colonists from
Miletus led by one Themistagoras at the very end of the 7th, and probably at the beginning of the 6th century BC.
After many years of uncertainty and academic debate, the site of this settlement now seems to be established, thanks to underwater archaeology under tough conditions. Apparently the lake which the well-informed ancient Greek author
Strabo reported as bounding one side of Phasis has now engulfed it, or part of it. Yet, a series of questions regarding the town’s exact location and identification of its ruins remains open due largely to the centuries-long geomorphologic processes of the area as the lower reaches of the Rioni are prone to changes of course across the wetland. Phasis appears to have been an important center of trade and culture in
Colchis throughout the Classical period. The section along the river Phasis was a vital component of the presumed trade route from
India to the Black Sea, attested by Strabo and
Pliny.
Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, the town played an active role in these contacts. During the
Third Mithridatic War, Phasis came under the
Roman control. It was where the Roman commander-in-chief
Pompey, having crossed into Colchis from
Iberia, met the
legate Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet in 65 BC. After the introduction of
Christianity, Phasis was a seat of a Greek diocese one of whose bishops, Cyrus, became a
Patriarch of Alexandria between 630 and 641 AD. During the
Lazic War between the
Eastern Roman and
Sassanid Iranian empires (542-562) Phasis was attacked, unsuccessfully, by the Iranian troops.
In the 8th century, the name Poti enters the Georgian written sources. It remained a place of a maritime trade within the
Kingdom of Georgia and was known to medieval European travelers as Fasso. In the 14th century, the
Genoese established a trading factory, which proved to be short-lived.
Modern history
In 1578, Poti was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire. The Turks, who knew the town as Faş, heavily fortified it and made it into one of their Caucasian outposts which was also home to a great slave market. A combined army of the western Georgian princes recovered Poti in 1640, but the town fell under the Ottoman sway again in 1723. Another futile attempt to dispossess the Ottomans of Poti was made by
Russo-Georgian forces in 1770 and 1771. Once Russia took control of most of principal Georgian lands in the 1800s, it again attempted to evict the Turkish garrison from Poti and succeeded in doing so with the help of Georgian irregulars in 1809, but was coerced to return the fortress to the Ottomans in the
Treaty of Bucharest (1812). The next
Russo-Turkish War resulted in the gain of Poti by Russia. The town was subordinated to the
Governorate of Kutais and granted the status of a
port town in 1858. The seaport was reconstructed between 1863 and 1905. In 1872, the town became the terminus of the Caucasian railway, whence the line led direct to
Tiflis (Tbilisi).
Poti particularly grew in size and importance during the mayorship of
Niko Nikoladze between 1894 and 1912. Considered to be the founding father of a modern Poti, Nikoladze presided over a series of modernizing and construction projects, including a drama theatre,
large cathedral, 2 gymnasiums, electric station, an oil refinery, etc. By 1900, Poti had become one of the major ports on the Black Sea, exporting most of Georgia’s manganese and coal. During the
First Russian Revolution, Poti became a scene of workers’ strikes and barricade fighting in December 1905. During the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing
Russian Civil War, Poti was Georgia’s principal window to Europe, also serving as the portal of entry for successive German and British expeditionary forces. On
May 28 1918, a German-Georgian preliminary
treaty of alliance was signed at Poti. On
March 14 1921, Poti was occupied by the
invading Red Armies of
Soviet Russia which installed a Soviet government in Georgia. During the Soviet era, Poti retained its principal function of a seaport and the town was further industrialized and militarized.
Economy
Service and food industry represent the most important sectors of the economy. The
Poti Sea Port (7.7 million tons per annum) is operational.
In April 2008, Georgia sold a 51% stake of the Poti port to the Investment Authority of the
UAE’s
Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) emirate to develop a
free economic zone (FEZ) in a 49-year management concession, and to manage a new port terminal. The creation of a new FEZ was officially inaugurated by the
President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on
April 15 2008.
Military
The Poti naval base was organized by the Soviet government in July 1941, a month after the
German invasion during
World War II. Commanded by the major-general Mikhail Kumanin, the base operated as a part of the
Black Sea Fleet and included 2
submarine divisions, a
torpedo boat division, coastal guard boat division, 2
minesweepers, 4 coastal and 6 missile batteries, etc. After the German capture of
Sevastopol and
Novorossiysk in 1942, several
destroyers were transferred to be based at Poti which, together with another Georgian port city of
Batumi functioned as a secondary harbor in the
Black Sea Campaigns (1941-44). By the early 1990s, the Poti base had accommodated several smaller units of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, but became essentially defunct after the
collapse of the Soviet Union. In December 1992, Russia withdrew all its vessels and ammunition from the Poti naval base, but an ethnic Georgian commander of one landing ship refused to obey Moscow’s order and displayed a Georgian flag. At almost the same time, the Georgian government created a Joint Naval Brigade, consisting of several boats, a battalion of marines, an artillery division and a communication detachment. Since then, the Brigade has been enlarged and reequipped with the help of the
NATO-member states.
On
October 9 1993, a
war-torn Georgia had to legalize the Russian military presence in the country, and lease, among other military facilities, the Poti base to the Russian navy. However, Georgia continued, though fruitlessly, to claim the vessels formerly stationed at Poti as a part of a tripartite
Russo-Ukrainian-Georgian dispute over the Soviet Black Sea Fleet shares. By September 1998, the Russian military personnel had been withdrawn from Poti to then-Russian base at Batumi under a Russo-Georgian agreement signed earlier that year.
Currently, Poti is a home to several of Georgia’s military facilities. These are the headquarters and main base of the
Georgian navy, a chief logistic support base and a naval squadron as well as a Separate Light Infantry Battalion of the Ground Forces.
Sister Cities
Further Information
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