ABSTRACT
Hopa, a town of strategic importance by virtue of being located at the Turkey-Georgia border, is located in the eastern part of the Black Sea region. Hopa was included in the territory of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century with the military expedition that Mehmed the Conqueror launched over Batumi. Following the separation of Ahiska from the Ottoman territories and its surrender to Russians as a result of the Edirne Treaty in September 1829, the Hopa district that was within the state of Trabzon was placed under Batum county with Batum as the center. Part of the Hopa region remained under Ottoman rule until their surrender to the Russian Empire. The economic dynamism that the port of Hopa created continued with the beginning of tea cultivation, and it reached a whole different level with the reopening of the Sarp border gate in 1988.
