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Kutaisi

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Kutaisi (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Lang-ka {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a city in the Imereti region of the Republic of Georgia. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the fourth-most populous city in Georgia after Tbilisi, Batumi and Rustavi. It lies Template:Convert west of Tbilisi, on the Rioni River, and is the capital of Imereti.

Historically one of the major cities of Georgia, it served as the political center of Colchis in the Middle Ages as the capital of the Kingdom of Abkhazia<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Kingdom of Georgia and later as the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. From October 2012 to December 2018, Kutaisi was the seat of the Parliament of Georgia as an effort to decentralize the Georgian government.

HistoryEdit

Archaeological evidence indicates that the city functioned as the capital of the Colchis in the sixth to fifth centuries BC.<ref>Gela Gamkrelidze. RESEARCHES IN IBERIA-COLCHOLOGY. Edited by David Braiind (Prof, of University of Exeter (UK)) // Olar LORDKIPANIDZE CENTRE OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM. P. 43 "According to the data on archaeological excavations on the Gabashvili, Dateshidze and Ukimerioni hills in Kutaisi, an urban-type settlement of the 6-5 cent. BC was found to be concentrated"</ref> It is believed that, in Argonautica, a Greek epic poem about Jason and the Argonauts and their journey to Colchis, author Apollonius Rhodius considered Kutaisi their final destination as well as the residence of King Aeëtes.

File:Kutaisi, 1870s.png
Kutaisi in 1870

Later, it was the capital of the kingdom of Lazica until being occupied briefly by the Arabs. An Arab invasion into western Georgia was repelled by Abkhazians jointly with Lazic and Iberian allies in 736, towards c.786, Leon II won his full independence from the Byzantine Empire and transferred his capital to Kutaisi, thus unifying Lazica and Abasgia via a dynastic union. The latter led the unification of the Georgian monarchy in the 11th century.

From 1008 to 1122, Kutaisi served as the capital of the Kingdom of Georgia, and, from the 15th century until 1810, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Imereti. In 1508, the city was conquered by Selim I, who was the son of Bayezid II, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

During the 17th century, Imeretian kings made many appeals to the Russian Empire to help them in their struggle for independence from the Ottomans. All these appeals were ignored as Russia did not want to spoil relations with the Ottomans. Only in the reign of Catherine the Great, in 1768, were troops of general Gottlieb Heinrich Totleben sent to join the forces of King Heraclius II of Georgia, who hoped to reconquer the Ottoman-held southern Georgian lands, with Russian help. Totleben helped King Solomon I of Imereti to recover his capital, Kutaisi, on August 6, 1770.

File:View of Kutaisi (1885).JPG
Kutaisi in 1885

Finally, the Russian-Turkish wars ended in 1810 with the annexation of the Imeretian Kingdom by the Russian Empire. The city was the administrative capital of the Kutaisi uezd and the larger Kutaisi Governorate, which included much of west Georgia.

In March 1879, the city was the site of a blood libel trial that attracted attention all over the Russian Empire. Nine Georgian Jews from Sachkhere were falsely accused of killing a Christian girl and using her blood for allegedly Jewish religious purposes.<ref name=":0" /> The trial took place at the Kutaisi Circuit Court, which had been established in 1868 as one of several new courts in the Caucasus created by Tsar Alexander II.'s Judicial Reform. After a ten-day trial, with nearly 70 witnesses, the nine defendants were acquitted as the defense lawyers Petr Aleksandrov, Lev Kupernik and Moisei Kikodze convinced the judges that the accusations against the Jewish men were mostly based on false testimony.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Kutaisi was a major industrial center before Georgia's independence on 9 April 1991. Independence was followed by the economic collapse of the country, and, as a result, many inhabitants of Kutaisi have had to work abroad. Small-scale trade prevails among the rest of the population.

In 2011, Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, signed a constitutional amendment relocating the parliament to Kutaisi.<ref>Relocation of Next Parliament to Kutaisi Endorsed, Civil Georgia, Tbilisi, 21 June 2011 Template:Webarchive.Retrieved: 24 November 2013.</ref> On 26 May 2012, Saakashvili inaugurated the new Parliament building in Kutaisi. This was done in an effort to decentralize power and shift some political control closer to Abkhazia, although it has been criticized as marginalizing the legislature, and also for the demolition of a Soviet War Memorial formerly at the new building's location.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The subsequent government of the Georgian Dream passed a new constitution that moved the parliament back to Tbilisi, effective from January 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

CultureEdit

File:2014 Kutaisi, Katedra Bagrati (04).jpg
Bagrati Cathedral, originally built in the Middle Ages and recently repaired from damages suffered through centuries
File:Gelati 1661.jpg
Gelati Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Kutaisi

LandmarksEdit

The landmark of the city is the ruined Bagrati Cathedral, built by Bagrat III, king of Georgia, in the early 11th century. The Gelati Monastery a few km east of the city, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the famous churches in Georgia is Motsameta monastery. It is named after two saints, brothers David and Constantine. They were the Dukes of Margveti, and were martyred by Arab invaders in the 8th  century. Besides the churches, there are other places of note such as: Sataplia Cave, where one can observe footprints of dinosaurs; ruins of Geguti Palace, which was one of the residences of Georgian monarchs; "Okros Chardakhi" – Georgian Kings' Palace; the Mtatsminda Pantheon, where many notable citizens are buried.

The Kutaisi Synagogue was built in 1885.

  • Kutaisi. A renovated downtown street (Photo A. Muhranoff, 2010).jpg

    A street in central Kutaisi

  • Khareba church.jpg

    Church of Annunciation

  • Wikiwyprawa 2015 sad apelacyjny kutaisi 6.jpg

    Court of Appeals

  • Kutaisi Public School -1.jpg

    Kutaisi Public School

  • 2014 Kutaisi, Wielka Synagoga (01).jpg

    Local synagogue built in 1886

  • Kutaisi State Opera.jpg

    Kutaisi State Opera

  • Აკაკი წერეთლის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი.jpg

    Akaki Tsereteli State University

Museums and other cultural institutionsEdit

File:库塔伊西博物馆.jpg
Kutaisi State Historical Museum

Theatres and cinemaEdit

File:2014 Kutaisi, Państwowy Teatr Dramatyczny (01).jpg
Drama Theatre
  • Kutaisi Lado Meskhishvili State Academic Theatre
  • Kutaisi Meliton Balanchivadze State Opera House
  • Kutaisi Iakob Gogebashvili State Puppet Theatre
  • Cinema and Entertaining Center "Suliko"
  • Hermann-Wedekind-Jugendtheater

EducationEdit

Higher educational institutions in Kutaisi:

Professional unions and public organizationsEdit

  • Georgian Writers' Union
  • Georgian Painters' Union
  • Folk Palace

MediaEdit

Local newspapers include: Kutaisi, Imeretis Moabe, Akhali Gazeti, and Kutaisuri Versia. Other publications include Chveneburebi, a journal published by the Ministry of Diaspora Issues, and Gantiadi, a scientific journal.

TV: "Rioni"; Radio: "Dzveli Kalaki" (old City)

Also nearly all of Georgia's national-level newspapers, journals and television stations have their representatives in Kutaisi.

GeographyEdit

File:Downtown Kutaisi.jpg
Downtown Kutaisi

Kutaisi is located along both banks of the Rioni River. The city lies at an elevation of Template:Convert above sea level. To the east and northeast Kutaisi is bounded by the Northern Imereti Foothills, to the north by the Samgurali Range, and to the west and the south by the Colchis Plain.

LandscapeEdit

Kutaisi is surrounded by deciduous forests to the northeast and the northwest. The low-lying outskirts of the city have a largely agricultural landscape. The city center has many gardens and its streets are lined with high, leafy trees. In the springtime, when the snow starts to melt in the nearby mountains, the storming Rioni River in the middle of the city is heard far beyond its banks.

ClimateEdit

Kutaisi has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with a well-defined on-shore/monsoonal flow (characteristic of the Colchis Plain) during the autumn and winter months. The summers are generally hot, while the winters are wet and cool. The average annual temperature in the city is Template:Convert. January is the coldest month with an average temperature of Template:Convert while August is the hottest month with an average temperature of Template:Convert. The absolute minimum recorded temperature is Template:Convert and the absolute maximum is Template:Convert recorded on 30 July 2000.<ref name="NCEI"/>

Average annual precipitation is around Template:Convert. Rain may fall in every season of the year. The city often experiences heavy, wet snowfall (snowfall of Template:Cvt or more per single snowstorm is not uncommon) in the winter, but the snow cover usually does not last for more than a week. There are roughly 15.5 days a year with snow depth.<ref name="NCEI"/> Kutaisi experiences powerful easterly winds in the summer which descend from the nearby mountains. Template:Weather box Template:Weather box

PopulationEdit

File:Kutaisi Golden morning.jpg
View of Kutaisi
Template:Big
Year Georgians Jews Armenians Russians Others Total
1886<ref name="ethno-kavkaz">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

15,200 67.1% 2.788 12.3% 2,320 10.2% 1,526 6.7% 22,643
1897<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

22,017 67.8% 3,419 10.5% 1,264 3.9% 3,684 11.3% 32,476
1916<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 33,843 58.2% 10,479 18.0% 1,845 3.2% 10,975 18.9% 1,009 1.7% 58,151
1926<ref name="ethno-kavkaz"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

39,871 82.7% 4,738 9.8% 830 1.7% 890 1.8% 48,196
1939<ref name="ethno-kavkaz"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

59,612 76.9% 6,986 4.7% 977 1.3% 8,753 11.3% 77,515
1959<ref name="ethno-kavkaz"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

96,614 75.4% 581 0.5% 1,614 1.3% 16,213 12.6% 128,203
1970<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

160,937
1979<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

194,297
1989<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

234,870
2002<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

181,465 97.6% 613 0.3% 2,223 1.2% 1,664 0.9% 185,965
2014<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

146,153 99.00% 60 0.04% 127 0.09% 533 0.36% 762 0.52% 147,635
2023<ref>https://geostat.ge/media/53040/1-3-population-by-cities-and-boroughs.xlsx census spreadsheet</ref> 130,411

Administrative divisionEdit

File:Kutaisi S 1.JPG
Map of Kutaisi

There are 13 administrative units in Kutaisi:

  1. Avtokarkhana
  2. Gamarjveba
  3. Gumati
  4. Vakisubani
  5. Kakhianouri
  6. Mukhnari
  7. Nikea
  8. Sapichkhia
  9. Sulkhan-Saba
  10. Ukimerioni
  11. City-museum
  12. Dzelkviani
  13. Zastava

GovernmentEdit

MayorEdit

File:Ქუთაისი Kutaissi (48739904727).jpg
White bridge at night

The most recent mayoral election was held on 2 October 2021, with a runoff held on 30 October, and the results were as follows:

Template:Election results

List of elected mayors of KutaisiTemplate:Efn

  • Ioseb Khakhaleishvili (GD) (2020–)
  • Giorgi Chighvaria (GD) (2017–2020)
  • Shota Murghulia (GD) (2014–2017)

City councilEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Chain bridge. Night.jpg
Rustaveli bridge at night

The Kutaisi city council (Sakrebulo) governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on October 2, 2021, and the results were as follows:

Template:Election table ! colspan=2| Party ! Lead candidate ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=#0D00B3| | align=left| Georgian Dream | align=left| Dimitri Mkheidze | 25,957 | 39.21 | Template:Decrease 9.94 | 18 | Template:Decrease 1 |- | bgcolor=#e4012e| | align=left| United National Movement | align=left| Giga Shushania | 24,893 | 37.60 | Template:Increase 14.23 | 14 | Template:Increase 10 |- | bgcolor=#702F92| | align=left| For Georgia | align=left| Eleonora Archaia | 4,440 | 6.71 | New | 2 | New |- | bgcolor=#ff0000| | align=left| Strategy Aghmashenebeli | align=left| Koba Guruli | 2,168 | 3.28 | Template:Increase 0.64 | 1 | Template:Increase 1 |- | colspan=9 bgcolor=lightgrey| |- | bgcolor=#fad406| | align=left| Lelo | align=left| Gia Gurgenidze | 1,339 | 2.02 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=#16166b| | align=left| Labour Party | align=left| Samson Gugava | 1,130 | 1.71 | Template:Decrease 2.05 | 0 | Template:Steady |- | bgcolor=#327F37| | align=left| Girchi - More Freedom | align=left| Dachi Dididze | 1,073 | 1.62 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=#F2721D| | align=left|For the People | align=left| Shota Chikovani | 820 | 1.24 | New | 0 | New |- | bgcolor=#e7b031| | align=left| Alliance of Patriots | align=left| Nona Asatiani | 804 | 1.21 | Template:Decrease 2.68 | 0 | Template:Steady |- | bgcolor=#003C7B| | align=left| European Georgia | align=left| David Gogisvanidze | 733 | 1.11 | Template:Decrease 10.82 | 0 | Template:Decrease 2 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 68,486 ! 100.0 ! ! 35 ! ±10 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 153,861 ! 44.53 ! Template:Decrease 0.81 ! ! |- | colspan=8| Source: არჩევნების შედეგები |}

EconomyEdit

File:TBC Bank Kutaisi.jpg
TBC Bank in Kutaisi

Kutaisi has traditionally been an important industrial center in Georgia, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union most of the old manufacturing lines either stopped working or had to greatly reduce their operations. Nevertheless, the city continues to be an important regional center for the greater Imereti area, acting as a commercial hub for the surrounding countryside. In recent years, the city has started attracting more investment from various multinational corporations.

The Auto Mechanical Plant, originally established in 1945, is located in Kutaisi.

There are two free industrial zones in Kutaisi: The Kutaisi free industrial zone (Kutaisi FIZ) and the Hualing free industrial zone (Hualing FIZ).<ref name=freezones>Free Zones in Georgia Template:Webarchive. Iven De Hoon. October 18, 2020</ref> The Kutaisi FIZ was created in 2009 and was established on the initiative of Fresh Electric, an Egypt-based home appliances producer.<ref>Egypt-based Company Plans Free Industrial Zone in Kutaisi Template:Webarchive. Civil Georgia. April 2, 2009</ref> The Hualing FIZ operates since 2015, and specializes in wood and stone processing, furniture and mattress production and metal construction. Both of the free industrial zones offer multiple incentives to investors such as tax exemptions and reduced barriers for trade.<ref name=freezones />

In 2019, German solar panel manufacturer AE Solar opened a new, fully automated manufacturing line in Kutaisi. With a total output of 500 MW per year it is the largest solar panel factory under one roof in Europe.<ref>AE Solar, Our Story Template:Webarchive. AE Solar. October 18, 2020</ref> During the same year Changan Automobile announced plans to construct an electric car factory in Kutaisi, with an annual production capacity of up to 40,000 vehicles. The company plans to export annually about 20,000 cars to the EU.<ref>New factory to produce electric cars in Georgia from 2020 Template:Webarchive. April 8, 2019</ref> The factory plans to employ about 3,000 people.<ref>Kutaisi electric cars factory to produce first cars in August Template:Webarchive. January 24, 2020</ref>

SportEdit

Template:See also Kutaisi has a great tradition in sports, with many famous sports clubs. FC Torpedo Kutaisi has participated on the highest level of the Soviet Union football league. After Georgia achieved independence, it won many domestic and international titles. RC AIA Kutaisi won the Soviet Championship several times in rugby, and after independence, national championships and cups. The women's football club FC Martve takes part at the 2017–18 UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying round after becoming champion in the Georgia women's football championship in 2016.<ref name="uefa1"/> Kutaisi also has an influential basketball club BC Kutaisi 2010, 2016 Champion of the Georgian Superliga, which plays its home games at the Kutaisi Sport Palas.

TransportEdit

File:David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport, KUT, Georgia (41001395655).jpg
Kutaisi International Airport

AirportEdit

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David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport (IATA: KUT, ICAO: UGKO) is an international airport located Template:Convert west of Kutaisi. It is one of three international airports currently in operation in Georgia.

RailwayEdit

Kutaisi has two main railway stations, along with multiple smaller ones. Direct inter-city, as well as suburban railway services, are provided to Tbilisi (Central) and other major cities across the country. The rail operator on all lines is Georgian Railways.

Local celebrationsEdit

File:Kutaisi - Springbrunnen vor der Oper.JPG
Colchis Fountain in main square

Kutaisoba is the most important holiday in Kutaisi. It is celebrated on 2 May. On this day the population of Kutaisi crowds into the central park, with their children and celebrate together.

Some people make masks and there are many kinds of performances. Also, children sell chamomiles. It is an old tradition, in the past ladies collected money for poor people, so today children also collect money for them.

On Kutaisoba one can see traditional Georgian dances and can hear folk music. Also, it is an old tradition to go to the forest, which is near Kutaisi. Families barbecue and play games. On this day, people wear traditional clothes, Chokha. There is a tradition of writing lyrics that have been written by writers from Kutaisi, and then airplanes throw them from the sky. There is also a competition in different kinds of martial arts.

Notable peopleEdit

File:Parliament of Georgia in Kutaisi at Sunset.jpg
Former Georgian Parliament Building in Kutaisi

International relationsEdit

Twin towns – sister citiesEdit

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File:Kutaisi Walk, Newport - geograph.org.uk - 1708394.jpg
Kutaisi Walk in Newport, Wales

Kutaisi is twinned with:<ref name=twins>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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Cooperation agreementsEdit

Kutaisi has cooperation agreements with:<ref name=twins/>

See alsoEdit

Explanatory notesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:Cities and towns in Georgia (country) Template:Districts of Georgia Template:Historic capitals of Georgia Template:Authority control

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