former Batum Oblast - later known as Artvin, was awarded to Turkey, which renounced its claims to Batumi. The autonomous Lazistan sanjak existed until the end of the empire in 1923. The designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926, by the Kemalists. Lazistan was divided between Rize and Artvin provinces. Population The population of Lazistan was made up of Sunni Muslim Laz, Turks, and Hemshin people. The Christian population were around and made up of Pontic Greeks and Armenian Apostolic Christians. Religion The Ottomans fought for three centuries to destroy the Christian-Georgian consciousness of the Laz people. The execution of the Three Hundred Laz Martyrs took place on Mt. Dudikvati (lit. “the place of beheading”) and on Mt. Papati (lit. “the place of the clergy”) respectively. The beheading of some three hundred Laz warriors on a single mountain between the years 1600 and 1620 and the martyrdom of the clergy at one local monastery was what occurred during this massacre, and resulted in the dissolution of the Clergy and subsequent conversion to Islam or Hellenization of the Laz people. Local orthodox inhabitants, once subordinated to the Georgian Orthodox Church, had to adhere to the rules of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Part of the native population became targets of the Ottoman Islamization policy and gradually converted to Islam, while the second part of the people who remained orthodox subordinated to the Greek Church, thus gradually becoming Greeks as part of the process known as the Hellenization of Laz people. Lazs who were under the control of Constantinople soon lost their language and self-identity as they became Greeks and learned Greek, especially the Pontic dialect of Greek, although the Laz language was preserved by Lazs who had instead become Muslim. Economy Historically, Lazistan was known for producing hazelnuts, which were exported to and from Trabzon. Lazistan also produced zinc, producing over 1,700 tons in 1901. See also Laz people Ajaria Pontus Notes References Historical regions of Georgia (country) Sanjaks of Ottoman Anatolia Trebizond vilayet Laz people Lazistan