Akhalkalaki

The name Akhalkalaki, first recorded in the 11th-century Georgian chronicle, means "a new town", from Georgian [ɑxɑli], "new", and [kʰɑlɑkʰi], "city" or "town". Its Armenian and Turkish names, Akhalakak and Ahılkelek, respectively, are transcribed from the Georgian. The 19th-century ethnographic accounts have another Armenian name for the town, Nor-Kaghak, also meaning "a new town".[2]

Akhalkalaki was founded by Bagrat IV of Georgia in 1064. In 1066, the city was destroyed during the Seljuq invasions of the Kingdom of Georgia.[3] In the 11th century Akhalkalaki became one of the political and economical centres of Javakheti. In the 16th century the city came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and became a sanjak centre in Çıldır Eyaleti. Under the Ottoman rule, the town was known as "Ahılkelek". The city was passed from the Ottomans to the Russians after the Russo-Turkish War in 1828–1829. On January 4, 1900, an earthquake destroyed much of the town and killed 1,000 people in the area.[4]

In XIX century the population was mainly Georgian but had been converted to Islam by 1829.[5] After Russian takeover most of the native Muslims left the area for the Ottoman Empire and in their place Christian Armenian refugees from Erzurum and Bayazid settled here.[5] Since then the city and the region of Javakheti has been largely again populated by Armenians.

The climate of Akhalkalaki is moderately humid with relative cold dry winters and long cool summers. (Köppen: Dfb)

The fragment from the map By Antonio Zatta, published in Venice in 1784. The map shows Akhalkalaki, Georgia

The crossroads village meets from south the streets from the border to Armenia and Turkey, from north to Borjomi–Gori and east-west from Batumi to Tiflis south of the Lesser Caucasus.

A 160 km long railway line was constructed between 1982 and 1986 in three parts. The junction from the line Tiflis–Jerewan is in Marabda.

In April 2005, an agreement was signed to build a new railway connecting Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan, passing nearby Akhalkalaki. This would bypass an existing line through Gyumri in Armenia which has been closed by Turkey, blockading Armenia, for political reasons since the 1990s.[13] The railway became operational on October 30, 2017.[14] It is here where the break-of-gauge is.[15]

In compound with the military base was constructed an airport. With military dismantling it was closed.

The city was a home to the Soviet-era 147th Motor Rifle Division (part of the 9th Army of the Transcaucasian Military District) up until the early 1990s. After the fall of the Soviet Union the Division became the Russian 62nd Military Base. It was officially transferred, according to the Sochi agreement, to Georgia on June 27, 2007.[16]

• Derenik Demirchian, Armenian writer
• Jivani, Armenian bard
• Harutyun Khachatryan, Armenian film director
• Ruben Ter-Minasian, Defense Minister of the First Republic of Armenia
• Hamo Ohanjanyan, the third Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia
• Ahmed bey Pepinov, Azerbaijani statesman

• Samtskhe–Javakheti