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Poti (ფოთი ; Mingrelian: ფუთი; Laz language: ჶაში/Faşi or ფაში/Paşi) is a port city in Georgia, located on the eastern Black Sea coast in the mkhare of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti in the west of the country. Built near the site of the Ancient Greece colony of Phasis and deriving its name from the same, the city has become a major port city and industrial center since the early 20th century. It is also home to a main naval base and the headquarters of the Georgian Navy.
After many years of uncertainty and academic debate, the site of this settlement now seems to be established, thanks to underwater archaeology under tough conditions. Apparently, the lake which the well-informed Ancient Greek author Strabo reported as bounding one side of Phasis has now engulfed it, or part of it. Yet, a series of questions regarding the town’s exact location and identification of its ruins remain open due largely to the centuries-long geomorphological processes of the area as the lower reaches of the Rioni are prone to changes of course across the wetland. Phasis appears to have been an important center of trade and culture in Colchis throughout the Classical period.Lordkipanidze (2000), p. 50.Richard J. A. Talbert et al. (2000), p. 1227. The section along the river Phasis was a vital component of the presumed trade route from India to the Black Sea, attested by Strabo and Pliny.Lordkipanidze (2000), p. 31.
Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, the town played an active role in these contacts. During the Third Mithridatic War, Phasis came under Ancient Rome control. It was where the Roman commander-in-chief Pompey, having crossed into Colchis from Iberia, met the legatus Servilius, the admiral of his Euxine fleet in 65 BC.John Leach (1986), Pompey the Great, p. 84. Routledge, . After the introduction of Christianity, Phasis was a seat of a Greek diocese, one of whose bishops, Cyrus, became a Patriarch of Alexandria between 630 and 641 AD. During the Lazic War between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid dynasty empires (542-562), Phasis was attacked, unsuccessfully, by Iranian soldiers.
In the 8th century, the name Poti entered Georgian written sources. It remained a place of maritime trade within the Kingdom of Georgia and was known to medieval European travelers as Fasso.W.E.D. Allen (Aug. 1929), The March-Lands of Georgia. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 74, No. 2, p. 135. In the 14th century, the Genoese established a trading factory, which proved to be short-lived.
Poti particularly grew in size and importance during the mayorship of Niko Nikoladze between 1894 and 1912. Considered to be the founding father of modern Poti, Nikoladze presided over a series of modernizing and construction projects, including a theater, a Poti Cathedral, two gymnasia, a power station, an oil refinery, etc. By 1900, Poti had become one of the major ports on the Black Sea, exporting most of Georgia’s manganese and coal.Jones (2005), p. 88. During the First Russian Revolution, Poti became a scene of workers' strikes and barricade fighting in December 1905.Jones (2005), pp. 192–3. At the beginning of World War I, on November 7, 1914, the Ottoman SMS Breslau appeared off the port of Poti and subjected the railway yards there to a bombardment that lasted three-quarters of an hour, without any direct results.Allen, W.E.D. & Muratoff, P. (1953), Caucasian Battlefields: A History of The Wars on The Turco- Caucasian Border 1828–1921, p. 248. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
During a brief period of independence in 1918–1921, Poti was Georgia’s principal window to Europe, also serving as the portal of entry for successive German and British expeditionary forces. On May 28, 1918, a German-Georgian preliminary treaty of alliance was signed at Poti. On March 14, 1921, Poti was occupied by the invading Red Armies of Russian SFSR which installed a Soviet government in Georgia. During the Soviet era, Poti retained its principal function as a seaport and the town was further industrialized and militarized.
During the 2008 war with Russia, Russian warplanes attacked the port. Although a ceasefire was declared on August 12, the Russian troops continued to occupy the environs of the city until being withdrawn the next month. Russian forces sink Georgian ships.
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The city's climate is humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha: Cf) with cool winters and hot summers. Average annual precipitation is , with the highest recorded value of daily precipitation being on 23 June 2008. Only in 2.6 days per year snow cover is observed.
Highest recorded temperature: on 30 July 2000
In April 2008, Georgia sold a 51% stake of the Poti port to the Investment Authority of the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) emirate to develop a free industrial zone (FIZ) in a 49-year management concession, and to manage a new port terminal. The creation of a new FEZ was officially inaugurated by the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili on April 15, 2008.Christina Tashkevich (April 16, 2008). President inaugurates Poti port project. The Messenger Online. Accessed on April 19, 2008.
As of November 2009, there were plans for a Kerch–Poti ferry route. Yushchenko says Ukraine to try quickly implement Kerch-Poti ferry route project, Kyiv Post (November 19, 2009)
On October 9, 1993, a war-torn Georgia had to legalize the Russian military presence in the country, and lease, among other military facilities, the Poti base to the Russian navy. However, Georgia continued, though fruitlessly, to claim the vessels formerly stationed at Poti as a part of a tripartite Russo-Ukrainian-Georgian dispute over the Soviet Black Sea Fleet shares.Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Newsline . Vol. 1, No. 42, Part I, 30 May 1997. By September 1998, the Russian military personnel had been withdrawn from Poti to the Russian base at Batumi under a Russo-Georgian agreement signed earlier that year. Georgian Border Guards pressure Russian counterparts to leave. RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 172 Part I, 7 (September 1998). Accessed on April 20, 2008.
Currently, Poti is a garrison assignment to several of Georgia’s units. These are the headquarters and main Military base of the Georgian navy, a primary naval logistic support base, a station of a naval squadron, and barracks for a separate light infantry battalion of the Georgian Armed Forces.
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