Adjarian settlements are also found in the Georgian provinces of Guria, Kvemo Kartli, and Kakheti, as well as in several areas of neighbouring Turkey.

On 4 June 1918, the Treaty of Batum was signed, under which Georgia was forced to cede Adjara to the Ottoman Empire.

[20] During this time, under the leadership of prominent Adjarian activist Memed Abashidze, the Congress of the Representatives of Muslim Georgians was held on 31 August 1919.

[22][23] It was granted autonomy under the Georgian constitution adopted in February 1921 when the Red Army invaded Georgia.

[24] Achara joined the territory of Soviet Georgia under the 1921 Treaty of Kars, between the Ottoman Empire and the USSR.

The treaty required that Achara would have "administrative autonomy and the right to develop its own culture, its own religion, and its own agrarian regime".

[3] Islamic religious practice became the cultural norm, madrassas reopened and the call to prayer sounded from mosques.

[3] Local leader Aslan Abashidze leveraged the ongoing Islamic revival to advance his political goals.

[29] Taking advantage of the turmoil caused by the Georgian Civil War, War in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, he unilaterally took power without formal agreement and started to withhold tax revenue and capture Adjara's considerable wealth.

[3][30] The Head Mufti of Achara, Haji Mahmud Kamashidze, supported Abashidze in his power struggle.

[15] After Adjara was ceded to the Russian Empire in 1878 under the Treaty of Berlin, Adjarians, who were Muslims, were allowed to leave for Turkey.