Adjarians

The Adjarians (Georgian: აჭარლები, romanized: ach'arlebi), also known as Muslim Georgians, are an ethnographic group of Georgians indigenous to Adjara in south-western Georgia. Adjarian settlements are also found in the Georgian provinces of Guria, Kvemo Kartli, and Kakheti, as well as in several areas of neighbouring Turkey.

Adjarians converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule of Adjara. Under the 1921 Treaty of Kars, Adjara was granted autonomy, to protect its Muslim faith. Despite their conversion to Islam, Adjarians have kept the Georgian language (with their own dialect) and traditions. Still, their self-identification is ambiguous as their Islamic background is at odds with the Orthodox faith of their Georgian peers. In the 1926 census, Ajars were categorized as a distinct ethnic group. In the 1939 census, they were included in the same category as Georgians. Since Georgian independence, most Adjarians consider themselves Georgians, but many Georgians see Muslim Adjarians as second-class "Turkicized" Georgians.