Akhaltsikhe (Georgian: ახალციხის მუნიციპალიტეტი, Akhaltsikhis munitsip’alit’et’i)) is a municipality in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti.

By the start of 2021 the population was determined at 39,463 people,[2] a slight increase compared to the 2014 census.

In November 1944, the Meskhetian Turks, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group of predominantly Muslim faith living in this area, were deported to Soviet Central Asian republics as part of a Stalinist resettlement operation.

[14] At that time, the Meskhetians constituted half of the population of the raion Akhaltsikhe (1939: 28,428 of the 55,490 inhabitants).

[12] Attempts to return them to independent Georgia have failed, with local resistance.