The Adjara crisis (), also known as the Adjarian revolution or the Second Rose Revolution, was a political crisis in Georgia's Adjaran Autonomous Republic, then led by Aslan Abashidze, who refused to obey the central authorities after President Eduard Shevardnadze's ouster during the Rose Revolution of November 2003. The crisis threatened to develop into military confrontation as both sides mobilized their forces at the internal border. However, Georgia's post-revolutionary government of President Mikheil Saakashvili managed to avoid bloodshed and with the help of Adjaran opposition reasserted its supremacy. Abashidze left the region in exile in May 2004 and was succeeded by Levan Varshalomidze.
Tensions
Adjaran leader Aslan Abashidze, being in strong opposition to the Rose Revolution, declared a state of emergency immediately after Eduard Shevardnadze's ousting on November 23, 2003. Following negotiations with central authorities, the state of emergency was temporarily canceled on January 3, 2004, just one day before the presidential election. The state of emergency was renewed on January 7 and was followed by the crackdown of an oppositional demonstration. On January 19, dozens were injured as a result of clashes between protesters and police in the southern Adjaran village of Gonio. The protesters demanded the resignation of Aslan Abashidze. In the wake of Abashidze's visit to Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on January 20 backing Abashidze's policy and condemning his opposition as "extremist forces". In late January, Georgian officials, including Acting President Nino Burjanadze and President-elect Mikheil Saakashvili, met with Abashidze in Batumi.
On February 20, the opposition movement's offices were again raided after the opposition had staged a protest rally in Batumi. Clashes between supporters of and opposition to Abashidze also took place in Kobuleti. These protests coincided with the visit of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Walter Schwimmer in Batumi, who held talks with Abashidze. President Saakashvili demanded Adjaran leadership abolish the Autonomous Republic's Security Ministry, which was Abashidze's main weapon of repression.
At the Choloki Bridge
The situation escalated on March 14, when the central Georgian officials took advantage of Abashidze's being in Moscow and headed to Adjara to campaign for the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 28. However, pro-Abashidze armed groups blocked the administrative border of Adjara at the Choloki River and prevented President Mikheil Saakashvili and other members of the government from traveling to the Autonomous Republic. The Adjaran authorities claimed Saakashvili was going to take control over the region by force by staging a coup.
In retaliation, Georgia's central authorities imposed partial economic sanctions against its defiant region in a bid "to exhaust Adjaran regime's resources". Tensions defused between Tbilisi and Batumi on March 18 after President Saakashvili and Aslan Abashidze met and struck a deal that allowed for economic sanctions on Adjara to be lifted. An agreement was reached over disarmament of paramilitary forces in Adjara, release of political prisoners, joint control of the customs and port of Batumi, and providing conditions for free election campaigning in Adjara. However, Abashidze refused to disarm his paramilitary forces in April. On April 19-April 21, Batumi-based military commanders Major General Roman Dumbadze and Murad Tsintsadze officially announced their insubordination to central authorities' orders. On April 24, the Adjaran Senate approved Aslan Abashidze's proposal to impose a curfew in the region. However, according to the Georgian government dozens of soldiers of Abashidze's elite special purpose unit began to leave the region and pledged loyalty to the country's central authorities. Several Adjaran officials followed. Local opposition resumed the series of protests in Batumi, which were broken up severely on April 30.
At the end of April, Georgia launched its largest ever military exercises at the Kulevi training ground, near the Black Sea town of Poti. The large-scale war games, some 30 km away from Adjara's administrative border, was a show of strength, amid the confrontation between the central authorities and the Adjaran leader. In retaliation, the two key bridges connecting Adjara with the rest of Georgia over the Choloki River were blown up by Abashidze's forces to prevent an incursion into Adjara allegedly planned by the country's central authorities. On May 3, the U.S. Department of State condemned Abashidze's actions, accusing him of "trying to provoke a military crisis", and called him to disarm.