Abashidze, Memed

Mamed Abashidze belonged to the influential Muslim Georgian noble family of Abashidze , the rulers of Adjara in the Ottoman Empire . After Adjara became part of the Russian Empire in 1878, the Georgian intelligentsia launched a campaign aimed at integrating the local Muslim community of Georgia into Georgian society. Mehmed's father, Prince Ibrahim Abashidze, was a supporter of this movement and helped open a Georgian school in Batumi in 1883. Born in Batumi, during the Turkish rule, Mehmed studied at this school. At the same time, he received a traditional education at home. Fluent in several languages, he began translations from Arabic, Persian and Turkish works into Georgian and wrote the first Georgian textbook in Arabic and the first Turkish translation of the famous medieval Georgian epic poem “The Knight in the Tiger Skin” by Shota Rustaveli (the manuscript of this translation was lost in 1930s). In addition, Abashidze's plays were staged at the recently opened Batumi Drama Theater.

During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he became involved in the political life of Georgia. His brother, Aslan Abashidze, was the commander of one of the revolutionary detachments. From 1904 to 1908 he was a member of the Socialist Party of Federalists of Georgia and advocated pro-Georgian orientation among Muslims of Adjara.

In 1908, Russian persecution forced him to flee to the Ottoman Empire, where he was arrested. Again, in Adzharia, in 1913 he was imprisoned in the tsarist police and eventually exiled to Siberia. Having a ban on returning to Batumi, he remained in Tbilisi after his release and led the Committee of Georgian Muslims in the Batumi region. The February Revolution of 1917 in Russia allowed him to return to his native Adjara, where his Committee quickly turned into the opposition to the reviving Pan-Turkist movement and tried to unite Georgians, Christians and Muslims.

In November 1917, he was elected to the National Council of Georgia. During the Turkish occupation of Batumi in 1918, he remained in the region and was arrested for criticizing the Turkish authorities. He escaped from Trebizond prison later this year and welcomed the proclamation of the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia in May 1918. When the British established control of Batumi from the Ottomans in December 1918, ????? The movement forced the British military administration to organize local parliamentary elections on August 31, 1919 ????. Abashidze became Chairman of the newly elected Mejlis (National Assembly), which was soon to become the scene of a heated struggle between the pro-Georgian and Turkish-oriented group. Abashidze again launched campaigns requiring the inclusion of Adjara in Georgia with an autonomous status, criticizing the Allies' attempts to turn Batumi into a free port. After the evacuation of the British, the Georgian army entered Batumi on July 8, 1920, however, the issue of Adjara’s autonomy remains open. When the Red Army occupied Georgia in February-March 1921, Abashidze resigned from his post in the Mejlis and chose a policy of reconciliation with the Bolshevik regime. He became a member of the Batumi district revolutionary committee and took part in preparing the draft of the first Constitution of the Adjarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Although the Soviet authorities were still suspicious of Abashidze, he was still treated well and received a pension, for which I must probably say thanks to his previous connections with Joseph Stalin, who worked in Batumi at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1935, he became the head of the Adjara section of the Union of Writers of Georgia. During the Great Purge, however, he was arrested on trumped-up charges of treason and executed in the same year. His family members were also repressed. Abashidze was rehabilitated only in 1957.