Tusheti (tr; Bats language: თუშითა, romanized: tushita) is a historic region in northeast Georgia. A mountainous area, it is home to the Tusheti National Park. By the conventional definition of the Europe-Asia boundary as following the Drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus, Tusheti is geographically a European part of Georgia.Located in north of the Greater Caucasus Watershed, and this geographically in Europe, also mountains on Bezengi wall in upper Svaneti as Ushba and Tetnuldi.
Historically, Tusheti comprised four mountain communities: the Tsova (living in the Tsova Gorge), the Gometsari (living along the banks of the Tushetis Alazani River), the Pirikiti (living along the banks of the Pirikitis Alazani River), and the Chaghma (living close to the confluence of the two rivers). Administratively speaking, Tusheti is now part of the raioni of Akhmeta, itself part of Georgia's eastern region of Kakheti. The largest village in Tusheti is Omalo.
In the second half of the 17th century, Tusheti came in King Erekle I(1642–1709) support in the fight for the kingdom. In 1660, the great contribution made by the Tushes in the battle of Bakhtrion against the Tatar invaders became a basis on the legend about the bravery of the leader of Tushetians - Zezva Gafrindauli and the transfer of the Aloni(Alvani) Valley to the Tushes. The right to use the pastures of the Alvani Valley for the Tushes was subsequently legalized by the deeds of the kings of Kakheti - Teimuraz II and Erekle I.
Regarding the relationship between the Nakh (Tsova) and Georgian (Chaghma) Tushians, the "Red Book", states the following:
For centuries there have been two communities next to each other in Tusheti, one speaking the Nakh language, the other Old Georgian. The general name for them is tush, according to their language either Tsova- or Chagma-Tushian. They formed one single material and intellectual unit with Old Georgian elements prevailing.
The descendants of the Old Georgian pagan tribes, whose ancestors had fled from Christianity to Tusheti, are regarded as Tushians. In the mountains some of the fugitives splintered off from other Old Georgian tribes. They were in close contact with the Nakh tribes which resulted in a new linguistic unit. The Red Book of Peoples of the Russian Empire; Bats section. Available online: http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/bats.shtml
After the collapse of the unified Georgian monarchy, Tusheti came under the rule of kings in the fifteenth century.
Many Tush families began to move southwards from Tusheti during the first half of the nineteenth century and settled in the low-lying fields of Alvan at the western end of Kakheti.
(Alvan had already belonged to the Tush as a wintering-ground for their flocks for centuries; it was bequeathed to them in the seventeenth century in recognition of their valuable assistance in defeating a Safavid army at the Battle of Bakhtrioni in 1659: Like a rushing stream did the Toushines make their way into the fortress, while the first rays of the rising sun were falling upon the grim old fortifications. The Tartars, half asleep, ran out into a field, but in vain for now they were met by the Pchaves and Khevsoures, who had ventured out from the gorge of Pankisse. The Tartars, surrounded on all sides, were exterminated to the last.GOULBAT, A., "The Tale of Zesva", in Caucasian Legends, translated from the Russian of A. Goulbat by Sergei de Wesselitsky-Bojidarovitch, New York: Hinds, Noble and Eldredge, 1904)
The first to move were the Bats people following the destruction of one of their most important villages by a landslide in c.1830 and an outbreak of the plague.TOPCHISHVILI, Prof. Roland, The Tsova-Tushs (the Batsbs), article published with funding from the University of Frankfurt's ECLING project The Tush of the Chaghma, Pirikiti and Gometsari communities followed later. Many of these families practiced a semi-nomadic way of life, the men spending the summer with the flocks of sheep high up in the mountains between April and October, and wintering their flocks in Kakheti.
During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a minor anti-Soviet revolt took place in the area in 1942-1943, seemingly linked to the similar but more large-scale events in the neighbouring Ingushetia.
1873 TOTAL: 50 villages, 1,131 households, consisting of 2,548 men and 2,555 women, in all 5,103 souls.
Note: The Indurta and Sagirta communities were home to the Bats people.
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