A GREAT GIFT TO BATUMI AND ALL OF GEORGIA

Abstract

In 2023, publishing house — “Favorite” published an excellent monograph of Lela Saralidze — “Batumi during the period of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921)”, which is an important gift for Georgian historical scholars. Lela Saralidze is a PhD of History, Chief Scientist-researcher of the Regionalism Research institute (Tbilisi, Georgia). The 488-page monograph consists of an introduction, 7 chapters, 19 subsections and a conclusion. In the introduction, together with the actuality of the topic, a small historical excursion of the city is presented, which aims to show the essence of the problem. The first chapter of the work
is entirely devoted to clarifying the Batumi issue in Turkish historiography. The author is not limited to the period of 1918-1921 and offers a wider chronological framework. It clearly shows the partiality and tendency that Turkish authors show when discussing the Batumi issue.
The numerous footnotes of the monograph deserve special mention. In addition to the cited literature, short biographies of famous military, political or public figures, definitions of individual terms, etc. are presented here, which adds more attractiveness and charm to the work. The book is made at a high polygraphic level and leaves a very solid impression with its cover design, volume, English annotation, document appendices, bibliography (434 items), search engine and photo illustrations.
This work was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (Grant #SP-22-158). The book was presented to the scientific community on December 6, 2023 in the conference hall of the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia. Experts of the relevant field highly appreciated the monographic work.