HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Gardabani ( ka, გარდაბანი) is a city of 11,650 residents (2021) in the southern
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
n
region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
of
Kvemo Kartli Kvemo Kartli ( ka, ქვემო ქართლი, az, Aşağı Kartli) or "Lower Kartli", is a historic province and current administrative region ( mkhare) in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is the regional capital. Location K ...
and is the administrative centre of the Gardabani Municipality. It is located southeast of capital
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...
and from
Rustavi Rustavi ( ka, რუსთავი ) is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the region of Kvemo Kartli and southeast of capital Tbilisi. It has a population of 130,100 (2021), making it the fourth most populous city in Georgia. Its economy is ...
in the Kvemo Kartli Plain at an elevation of above sealevel. Until 1947 Gardabani was known as Karayazi ( az, Qarayazı) and the city status was granted in 1969, after a thermal power plant was built for Tbilisi in the 1960s causing rapid growth. Since then more plower plants have been built and the city nowadays supplies almost all thermally generated electricity in the country.


History

Gardabani was an inconspicuous village in the southern Georgian countryside until Russian rule in the 19th century. With the administrative division of the
South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
by the Russians, the settlement, at the time with the Azerbaijani name Karayaz(i) ( az, Qarayazı, russian: Караязы, often spelled Karaia in Georgian; also known under the Russian
exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
Karatapa, russian: Кара-тапа, ka, ყარატაფა, az, Qaratəpə), became the namesake and center of Karayaz
uchastok An uchastok (russian: yча́сток}, plural russian: yча́стки, translit=uchastki, label=none), or dilyanka in Ukrainian usage ( uk, ділянка, plural uk, ділянки, translit=dilyanki, label=none), was a territorial-administrat ...
(Russian: Караязский участок) within the Tiflis Uyezd (part of
Tiflis Governorate The Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population ...
). Karayazi was mainly populated by Azerbaijanis, who at the time were referred to as
Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary
is an umbrella term for different
like other Turkic-speaking ethnic groups. In 1886, 94% of the more than 5,000 residents of Karayazi uchastok were of Azerbaijani descent. Upon completion of the Tiflis - Baku railway line in 1883 a station opened in Karayaz. Karayazi was on the main attack route from Azerbaijan during the Soviet invasion of the
Democratic Republic of Georgia The Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG; ka, საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკა ') was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia, which existed from May 1918 to F ...
in February 1921, when it attempted to pass armored trains along Karayazi to Tiflis. By the end of February the Soviets captured Tiflis and soon incorporated Georgia as the
Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц ...
. In 1938 the Karayazi
raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is co ...
was separated from the Tiflis
Okrug An ''okrug, ; russian: о́круг, ókrug; sr, округ, okrug, ; uk, о́круг, о́kruh; be, акруга, akruha; pl, okręg; ab, оқрҿс; mhr, йырвел, '' is a type of administrative division in some Slavic states. Th ...
, making the village of Karayazi the administrative center of the new raion. In 1947 the name was changed from Karayazi to Gardabani, and in 1969 city rights were granted. With the local governance reforms in 2006 all raions were converted to
municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
and Gardabani remained the administrative center of the transformed municipality.


Population

At the beginning of 2021, Gardabani had a population of 11,650, an increase of more than 8% since the 2014 census. According to the 2014 census, the ethnic composition is 63% Azerbaijanis, followed by 30% Georgians. Almost all Assyrians in the municipality live in Gardabani city (almost 300, 2.5%). Other minorities are Armenians (1.9%),
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
(1.4%) and a few dozen
Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...
,
Ossetians The Ossetians or Ossetes (, ; os, ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ, translit= ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ, label=Ossetic) are an Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the no ...
and
Pontic Greeks The Pontic Greeks ( pnt, Ρωμαίοι, Ρωμίοι, tr, Pontus Rumları or , el, Πόντιοι, or , , ka, პონტოელი ბერძნები, ), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians, are an ethnically Greek group i ...
. In 1979, 49% of the city's residents were of Azerbaijani origin, while the proportion of Georgians was 17%. At the time, more Russians (15%), Armenians (5%) and Greeks (4%) lived in the city, who mostly emigrated with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. } !! 1959 !! 1970 !! 1979 !! 1989 !! 2002 !! 2014 !! 2021 , - , Population , - , , 904 , , 1,846 , , - , , 9,131 , , 13,661 , , 17,176 , , 11,858 , , 10,753 , , 11,650 , - , colspan=15 class="wikitable" style="align:left;text-align:left;background-color:#eaecf0", Data: Population statistics Georgia 1897 to present. Note:


Assyrians

A relatively large
Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...
community lives in Gardabani. After the
Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish ...
in 1915, survivors from the Anatolian region of
Bohtan Bohtan (also Buhtan, ''Bokhti'') was a medieval Kurdish principality in the Ottoman Empire centered on the town of Jazirah ibn 'Omar (modern Cizre also known as ''Cizîra Botan'' (''Jazira Botan'') in southeastern Anatolia. Bohtanis were an a ...
fled to the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
via
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
and eventually, after the revolutions and wars of that period, settled ina few villages in the Azerbaijan SSR. However, they never became Soviet citizens, and were deported to Siberia in 1949 where they lived in exile until 1956. The Assyrians who had been deported from the Azerbaijan town Ağstafa were not allowed to return by its residents, so they ended up in Gardabani.


Economy

Gardabani is the
center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
of thermal electricity production in Georgia, after the city was selected in the 1960s as the site for the Tbilisi thermal power plant (Tibilisskaja GRES), which was built west of the city. Since then, more plants have been built, and currently the site hosts several gas- and coal-fired power stations that are responsible for almost all thermal electricity production in Georgia. After the 2003
Rose Revolution The Rose Revolution or Revolution of Roses ( ka, ვარდების რევოლუცია, tr) was a nonviolent change of power that occurred in Georgia in November 2003. The event was brought about by widespread protests over the ...
, efforts were made to expand electricity production for greater energy independence, but also to cope with the energy crisis that plagued the country for years. In 2006 a
gas-fired power plant A gas-fired power plant or gas-fired power station or natural gas power plant is a thermal power station which burns natural gas to generate electricity. Natural gas power stations generate almost a quarter of world electricity and a signifi ...
with a capacity of 110 MW opened in Gardabani, the first new power plant since the country's independence. Since 2012, a further step-by-step investment in the country's energy independence was launched with the construction of new
combined cycle power plant A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas turb ...
s in Gardabani. Hydroelectric power plants are responsible for 75-80% of the electricity production in the mountainous country, some of which is seasonal, but additional imports were still required in addition to thermal power production. In addition, energy consumption in the country is increasing and outdated (hydropower) plants are not efficient enough. In 2015, Georgia's first combined cycle power plant, the 230 MW Gardabani-1, opened. At the beginning of 2020, Gardabani-2 combined cycle power plant of 230 MW followed. In September 2020, the construction of the 272 MW Gardabani-3 combined cycle power plant was announced, and a year later the 250 MW Gardabani-4 combined cycle power plant. In 2005, a pumping station for the
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is a long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri–Chirag–Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and Ceyhan, a port on the south-easter ...
opened near Gardabani, completing the Georgian sector of the pipeline. Presidents
Mikheil Saakashvili Mikheil Saakashvili ( ka, მიხეილ სააკაშვილი ; uk, Міхеіл Саакашвілі ; born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist.
(Georgia), Ilham Aliyev (
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
) and Ahmet Sezer (
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
) attended the inauguration.


Transport

Only one national route passes through Gardabani, the Sh66. This is a connection from
Rustavi Rustavi ( ka, რუსთავი ) is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the region of Kvemo Kartli and southeast of capital Tbilisi. It has a population of 130,100 (2021), making it the fourth most populous city in Georgia. Its economy is ...
via Gardabani to the Vakhtangisi border crossing with Azerbaijan. With just over 69,000 foreign travelers in 2019, this is a secondary border crossing. The
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...
- Baku railway line which opened in 1883 has a station on the outskirts of Gardabani. It serves as a border station for the scheduled Tbilisi - Baku connection.


Born in Gardabani

* Soyun Sadykov (1960), Russian politician, headed Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Azerbaijanis in Russia, confidante
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
; *
Gocha Jamarauli Gocha Jamarauli ( ka, გოჩა ჯამარაული; born 23 July 1971) is a Georgian former professional football midfielder. He collected 62 caps and as of 2008 is the fourth most capped player in Georgia. Club career His club ca ...
(1971), soccerplayer; *
Ilgar Mirzayev Ilgar Anzor oglu Mirzayev (; 8 May 1973–2020) was an Azerbaijani military officer, National Hero of Azerbaijan, and colonel serving in the Azerbaijani Armed Forces until his death during the July 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes. He also had ...
(1973-2020), Azerbaijani military officer,
National Hero of Azerbaijan The National Hero of Azerbaijan ( az, Azərbaycan milli qəhrəmanı) is the highest Hero (title), national title in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The title was named on 25 March 1992, and the "Qizil Ulduz" Medal awarded as a sign of receiving this t ...
, and colonel serving Azerbaijani Armed Forces until his death during
July 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes The July 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes began on 12 July 2020 between the Armenian Armed Forces and Azerbaijani Armed Forces. Initial clashes occurred near Movses in Tavush Province of Armenia, and Ağdam in Tovuz District of Azerbaija ...
; *
Giorgi Matiashvili Giorgi Matiashvili ( ka, გიორგი მათიაშვილი; born 18 December 1977) is a Georgian major general and the incumbent Chief of Georgian Defense Forces, appointed on 1 July 2020. Born in the town of Gardabani, Matiashv ...
(1977), Georgian major general and Chief of Georgian Defense Forces (2020-); *
Zabit Samedov Zabit Samedov ( az, Zabit Səmədov, russian: Забит Самедов, born July 21, 1984) is an Azerbaijani kickboxer and muay thai fighter. He is the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix Finalist, when he lost to Badr Hari in the quarter-finals by unan ...
(1984), kickbokser; *
Chingiz Allazov Chingiz Ayazovich Allazov ( be, Чынгiз Аяз аглы Аллазаў, born 10 June 1993) is a Georgian-born Belarusian kickboxer of Azerbaijani descent, currently signed with ONE Championship. He is a former K-1 Super Welterweight Champ ...
(1993), kickbokser.


See also

*
List of power stations in Georgia (country) The following page lists the power stations in Georgia. Thermal Hydroelectric Wind References See also * Energy in Georgia (country) * List of largest power stations in the world * List of power stations in Asia * Lis ...


References

{{Cities and towns in Georgia (country) Cities and towns in Kvemo Kartli