Artifacts dating back to the Bronze Age and even earlier have been found. The area was part of the kingdom of Colchis and part of the Greater Armenia but was always vulnerable to invasions, first the Scythians from across the Caucasus, then the Muslim armies led by Habib, son of Caliph Uthman who controlled the area from 853 AD to 1023 when it was conquered by the Byzantines from the Sac Emirate linked to the Abbasids.
The Seljuk Turks of Alp Arslan conquered the area in 1064 AD; but soon, it was briefly recaptured by the Georgians with the help of the Byzantines. But in 1081 Turkish forces led by Saltukoğlu Beylik managed to take it back with the aid of Melikşah. With the collapse of the Seljuks, the Artvin area came under the control of the Ildeniz tribe of the Anatolian Turkish beyliks.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
The Kingdom of Georgia regained control over the region through Georgian-Seljuk wars. Taking advantage of Georgia's weakness through Mongol invasions, Turkmens started their incursions into south-western Georgia. The largely Georgian population of the region called on lord of Samtskhe, to assist them against the Turkmens. By the mid-13th century, the Jaqelis realm thus incorporated most of the mountainous areas of north eastern Anatolia. Various Turkmen clans fought for control over the area and this continued until the Safavids ultimately took advantage of the infighting and conquered the area in 1502.
The Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II defeated the Empire of Trebizond to bring the eastern Black Sea coast and the mountainous hinterland under their control. Subsequent expeditions into the mountains by Selim I and Mehmed Han Yusufeli gave them control of a number of castles and thus the whole district. Kara Ahmed Pasha, the vizier of Suleiman I formed the first Livane Sanjak with the name Pert-Eğekte. On 13 July 1551, with Skender Pasha's Ardanuç castle, the Ottoman control of Artvin was secure. Ahmed III's vizer Hasan Pasha founded the city of Batumi in the newly acquired lands of Ajaria and it became the hub of the area.
This lasted 250 years until the area was ceded to the Russians by the Ottoman Empire following the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), and recovered and again ceded at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Artvin was in a war zone and continuously changing hands between Russia and Turkey with the Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Moscow and Kars. The conflict and uncertainty between Russia and Turkey in the late 19th century brought terrible suffering to the people of Artvin (Muslim Georgians), with much of the population moving westwards away from the Russian-controlled areas. The town was the administrative center of the Artvin Okrug of the Batum Oblast.
Above the strategically placed town and road is the fortress, which was once within the medieval Georgian district of Nigali. The site consists of a single circuit wall surrounding the summit of the outcrop, several impressive rooms, an outwork protecting the south entrance, and a large donjon at the west. There are also embrasures and windows suitable for archers. In 1983 the fortress was surveyed and three years later an accurate scaled plan and description were published.[12]
Ecclesiastical history
An old building in Artvin city center.Artvin general view.
On 30 April 1850, the papal bullaUniversi Dominici gregis from Pius IX established the Armenian Catholic eparchy (Eastern Catholic diocese) of Artvin of the Armenians, with jurisdiction over the extreme northeast of Turkey and in the (Russian) Transcaucasus. It has had only three incumbents:
Timoteus Astargi (or Astorgi) (30 April 1850 - death 26 March 1851)
Antonius Halagi (5 May 1859 - resigned 1878)
Johannes (John) Zakarian (1 October 1878 - death 1888), who was never allowed to take possession of his see by the Czarist Russian Empire, which had taken control of the whole province of Artvin [13][14][15][16] after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
In 1890 about 12,000 Armenian Catholics were reported, entrusted to the care of 13 Armenian priests in 2 churches and 5 chapels.[17]
Under an agreement between Russia and the Holy See in 1904, Catholic Armenians throughout the Caucasus and interior Russia were entrusted to an apostolic administrator resident in Tbilisi (Georgia), but the Soviet authorities imprisoned him, and he died some time before 1937.[18] The diocese had already lost most of its faithful in the Armenian genocide at the end of the First World War.
The Holy See continued to list the eparchy of Artvin as a vacant residential see until 1971,[19] but in 1972, suppressing it as such, began to list Artvin as the Armenian Catholic titular bishopric of Artvin (Curiate Italian) / Artwin / Artuinen(sis) Armenorum (Latin).[20]
However it never has had a titular incumbent, who should be of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank.
An Armenian woman in national costume poses on a hillside near Artvin, circa 1910.
In the census of 1897, the town of Artvin was mainly populated by Armenians, part of whom came from the Mush and Van region.[21] However, the district in which the town was located was largely Muslim. Outside of the town, the population in the district numbered 49,049 people, of whom 39,997 (82%) were Turks, 5,458 (11%) Georgian and 3,173 (6%) Armenian.[22]
The surrounding countryside offers many places for climbing, trekking and rafting.
Events
Artvin is known for the Caucasus (Kafkas in Turkish) Culture and Arts Festival, a celebration that takes place at the Kafkasör plateau every year.[29] The most famous event is the bull wrestling which draws many local and international visitors.[30]
^Robert W. Edwards, “The Fortifications of Artvin: A Second Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 40, 1986, pp.165-70, pls. 2-10.
^Annuario Pontificio 1971 (Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana0, p. 41
^Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ISBN978-88-209-9070-1), p. 840
^Morgan Philips. War & Revolution in Asiatic Russia. London, G. Allen & Unwin ltd. 1918. Print. " But the town of Artvin is chiefly inhabited by Armenians, 9.000 in all, who have an interesting history. They are nearly all Roman Catholics; and according to one of the priests with whom I talked, their forebears came from the Mush and Van regions a hundred and fifty years ago, and settled here for the purpose of carrying on trade between the coast and the Armenian plateau along the line of the Chorokh river. "
^Кавказский календарь на 1910 год [Caucasian calendar for 1910] (in Russian) (65th ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1910. p. 187. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022.
^Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. pp. 351–352. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 456 & Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Complementi, Leipzig 1931, p. 93
Notizie storiche sull'eparchia di Artvin, katolsk.no.
Papal Bulla 'Universi Dominici gregis', in Giovanni Domenico Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, vol. XL, coll. 779-780
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