Memed Abashidze

An eminent leader of Muslim Georgian community of Adjarians, he was a major proponent of pro-Georgian orientation in Adjara and one of the architects of the region's autonomy within Georgia.

Russia’s February Revolution of 1917 enabled to him to return to his native Adjara, where his Committee quickly turned into opposition to resurgent pan-Tukist movement and attempted to bring Christian and Muslim Georgians together.

Abashidze became chairman of the newly elected Mejlis (National Assembly) which was soon to become a scene of heated struggle between pro-Georgian and Turkophile factions.

Abashidze renewed his campaign calling for the incorporation of Adjara into Georgia with an autonomous status and criticizing the Allies’ attempts to turn Batumi into a free port.

When Soviet Russia’s Red Army occupied Georgia in February–March 1921, Abashizde resigned his position in the Mejlis and chose a policy of reconciliation with the newly established Bolshevik regime.

Although the Soviet authorities were suspicious of Abashidze, he was still well treated and received a pension thanks probably to his erstwhile ties with Joseph Stalin who worked in Batumi in the early 1900s.