Tkvarcheli ( ka, ტყვარჩელი ; ab, Тҟəарчал, ''Tqwarchal''; Ткуарчал (Tkuarchal) russian: Ткварчели, ''Tkvarcheli'') is a town in Abkhazia. It is situated on the river

Ghalidzga Ghalidzga ( xmf, Ghalish Dzga - Gheli bank) - river in Ochamchire Municipality ( Abkhazia). It originates on the southern slope of the Kodori Range, near the ( elevation 3,313 m ).

(Aaldzga) and a railway connects it with

Ochamchire Ochamchire or Ochamchira ( ka, ოჩამჩირე, ; ab, Очамчыра, ''Ochamchyra''; russian: Очамчира, ''Ochamchira'') is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast of Abkhazia, Georgia, and a centre of an eponymous district. Acc ...

. Akarmara, an area within the town, is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

with abandoned apartments and factories which became uninhabited in the early 1990s due to the War in Abkhazia (1992-93), and is home to just 35 residents today.Inal Khashi
Tkuarchal, Abkhazia – a former coal capital trying to survive
05.09.2020 JAMnews

History

Coal mining, which began in the area in 1935, grew in importance during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, especially after the Donbas was lost during the German invasion of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Tkvarcheli was given town status on 9 April 1942. During the War in Abkhazia (1992–93), Tkvarcheli withstood, through Russian military aid, a

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

by the Georgian forces. Since 1995, it has been the centre of the newly formed

Tkvarcheli District Tkvarcheli District ( ka, ტყვარჩელის რაიონი, ab, Тҟәарчал араион, russian: Ткварчелский район) is one of the districts of Abkhazia. It has no equivalent Georgian district, as it was ...

. On 27 September 2008, President

Sergei Bagapsh Sergei Uasyl-ipa Bagapsh, ka, სერგეი ბაგაფში, russian: Сергей Васильевич Багапш, translit=Sergey Vasilyevich Bagapsh (4 March 1949 – 29 May 2011) was an Abkhaz politician who served as th ...

awarded it the honorary title of Hero City.

Industry

Coal-mining has been the town's main industry, although now the Soviet mines are closed and coal is quarried only by the Abkhaz- Turkish Tamsaş company using the

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

method. Tamsaş's tax payments account for 75% of the Tkvarcheli district's budget however, the company was criticised for neglecting environmental requirements. Georgia regards all this investment as illegal, in clear violation of the 1996 CIS restrictionsAbkhazia Today.
''The International Crisis Group

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Report N°176, 15 September 2006''. Retrieved on September 30, 2007. ''Free registration needed to view full report'' and has arrested several vessels, loaded with coal from Tkvarcheli, in its

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potent ...

, a measure that has reportedly brought Tamsaş to the verge of bankruptcy.

Demography

The town's population was 21,744 in 1989. The three main ethnic groups were Abkhaz (42.3%),

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

(24.5%) and Georgians (23.4%). As a result of the War in Abkhazia the town's industries all but stopped and its population decreased greatly and was between 7,000 and 8,000 in 2004 according to some sources and only 4,800 according to others. At the time of the 2003 census, its population was 4,786. By the time of the 2011 census, it had increased to 5,013. Of these, 66.5% were Abkhaz, 17.4%

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

, 9.7%

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, 1.3%

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, 1.1%

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

and 0.4%

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

.2011 Census results
/ref>

Gallery

File:Akarmara.jpg, View of the Akarmara ghost town near Tkvarcheli File:Akarmaabandoned.jpg, View of an abandoned factory in Akarmara File:Akarmaraghosttown.jpg, View of abandoned apartments in Akarmara

Notes

References

{{Administrative divisions of Abkhazia Populated places in Tkvarcheli District Sukhum Okrug