Tianeti is a
townlet in east-central
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
, in the
Caucasus Mountains
The Caucasus Mountains
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* Azerbaijani: ,
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* is a mountain range at the intersection of Asia and Europe. Stretching between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, they are surrounded by the Caucasus region ...
. Tianeti is the administrative center of
Municipality of Tianeti, which also comprises the town of Sioni and 43 neighbouring villages (total area – 907 km
2; population – 9,468, 2014 census). It was known as Tionets during the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
's rule and was the administrative center of the
Tianeti Uyezd of the
Tiflis Governorate
Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative centre in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted in area and had a population of 1,051,032 inhabitants. ...
.
Tianeti is situated in the North-Eastern part of Georgia (Mtskheta-Mtianeti region). According to the 2014 State Census, its population was 2,479 people.
As studies conducted in 2003 on poverty in Georgia suggest, the Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region, and the Tianeti district in particular, are among the poorest regions and districts of Georgia. In 2003, 63% of Tianeti's population was below the poverty line, compared to 47% of the Georgian population (Labbate, Jamburia, Mirzashvili, 2003: 21).
According to the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, as of November 2008, 14% of Tianeti families were receiving social assistance in December 2008, compared to 8% countrywide.
During the Soviet times, Tianeti was a district (‘rayon’) centre. Several food processing enterprises, factories, as well as poultry and meat producing farms were functioning in the district, providing employment opportunities for the local population (Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia 1979: pp. 678–679). Soviet cultural, medical and educational infrastructure was also developed there.
In 2008, Tianeti was still the centre of the municipality (which is the contemporary analogue to the Soviet-era term ‘rayon’) with two secondary schools, two kindergartens, a vocational school, library, hospital and ethnographic museum. A municipal governance office, post office, and police station are also located in Tianeti. One of the Georgian banks has an office in Tianeti. There is a farmer's market, where most of the population purchases food, and several private grocery stores. None of the factories and farms that operated during the Soviet time are working today, and no new enterprises have been established. A small part of the population works at state institutions (so called “budget jobs”: schools, hospital, local self-governance, postal office, etc.). Products and/or income from subsistence farming contribute to a significant share of the local economy. However, Tianeti has a shortage of arable land (Labbate, Jamburia, Mirzashvili, 2003:21). In addition, the climate is quite severe. Thus, the population is sometimes unable to harvest crops before winter.
Adapted from: Tamar Zurabishvili, Tinatin Zurabishvili. 2012. Remittances in Provincial Georgia: The Case of Daba Tianeti. In: Migrant Marginality: A Transnational Perspective. Routledge.
Climate
See also
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Mtskheta-Mtianeti
References
Cities and towns in Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Tiflis Governorate
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