Marneuli

The distance along the highway to Tbilisi is 30 kilometers, to Yerevan - 257 kilometers, to Baku - 621 kilometers.

Climate

Moderately warm steppe climate. Moderately cold winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 12 ° C, January 0 ° C, July 23.9 ° C. The absolute minimum is 25 ° C, the absolute maximum is 40 ° C. Precipitation is 500 mm per year.

Marneuli is the center of the Marneuli municipality of Georgia , until 1947 the city ​​was known as Borchaly , from 1947 to 1952 Sarvani ( Georgian სარვანი ; Azerb. Sarvan ) ^{[4] [5]} . The status of the city received in 1964 .

On July 1, in 1625, north of Marneuli, near the Algeti River, a large battle of Georgian forces with the Iranian conquerors took place near the Algeti field, the Georgian army under the command of Giorgi Saakadze at first almost defeated the Iranian army of Isa Khan, but then the Iranians nevertheless were defeated and the Iranians entered Tbilisi .

On December 19, 1918, a battle of the Georgian-Armenian war took place near the Khrami River (8 kilometers south of the district center). Due to the ceasefire established on January 1 at the insistence of the British army, which occupied the German army in the region (after the defeat of the latter in the First World War ), the city remained in the Georgian-Armenian neutral zone, and was subsequently incorporated into Georgia.

In 1921, Marneuli again became the center of hostilities - parts of the Soviet 11th Army went through Tbilisi in the course of the Soviet-Georgian war .

On August 8, 2008, during an armed conflict in South Ossetia, Russian planes bombed the city’s airfield, killing 3 people and destroying the runway of the airfield ^[6] .

According to official data from the Georgian government, the population of Marneuli in 2006 amounted to 20.1 thousand people, of which 83.1% were Azerbaijanis ^[7] .

According to the 1989 All-Union Census, 27,557 people lived in Marneuli ^[8] .

There are several small enterprises in the city: a cannery, a cheese-and-oil plant, a plant for reinforced concrete products and a haberdashery factory. There is a junction railway station Marneuli, located on the Tbilisi-Vanadzor line. There is also a wholesale and retail bazaar in Marneuli.

In 2015, as part of the Support for Democracy program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, a participatory budget procedure was launched in Marneuli, based on the experience of similar projects in Poland ^[9] , the prototype for which was the project in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre ^[10] . Within the framework of the civil budget, it was supposed to distribute up to 5% of the total municipal budget of Marneuli ^[11] .

• The main mosque of Marneuli
• Sharifli Mosque
• Monastery of Ceravi
• Mosque (opened in 2010 in Imiri)

There are two universities in Marneuli, one of which, named after Heydar Aliyev , opened in 2008 . ^[12]

• Tbilisi State University (branch)
• Georgian-Azerbaijan Humanitarian University named after Heydar Aliyev

In March - May 2010 , the Muslim community of Georgia, together with the Georgian expert Gela Guniava, carried out expeditionary work, during which they interviewed Muslim Azerbaijanis in Tbilisi , as well as other cities and towns of Kvemo Kartli (Marneuli, Gardabani , villages of Imiri , Ponichala , Dzveli-Kveshi , Amamlo, Meore-Kesalo , etc.). The studies included general reference questions on the number, national composition and areas of Muslims in Georgia, as well as on the number of mosques, priests and the system of religious education.

The activities of Islamic cultural and educational organizations were also studied, the level of knowledge of the population about Islam and religious rituals was studied, the level of penetration of religious norms into the consciousness and everyday life of Georgian Muslims was determined, meetings were held with representatives of the Shiite and Sunni Muslim clergy, including the Akhund and imams of mosques mentioned above settlements. ^[13]

The following non-governmental organizations operate in the city:

• Confederation of Türks of Georgia
• National Assembly of Azerbaijanis of Georgia
• Union of Young Turks of Borchaly
• Committee of Turkic Women of Georgia
• " Cultural Center of Azerbaijanis "
• People's Movement "Geyrat"
• Community Radio: Marneuli
• Tv channel Alget.
• Religious Society "Ahly Beit"

• Marneuli Municipality

• Marneuli - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .