Adjarians were loyal to Russia as they found the best opportunity to be reunited with other Georgia. The Berlin Congress of 1878 declared the regional capital of Batum a porto franco or free port. The city became an important seaport and industrial city towards the end of the 1880s. At the turn of the 20th century, Batumi was linked to the oil fields of Baku by one of the earliest pipelines (Baku-Batumi pipeline) and a railway, and it became one of the most important ports in the world. On June 22, 1892 the "Markus", a huge tanker ship, departed Batumi for Bangkok, Thailand, becoming the first oil tanker to transit the Suez Canal. The region (called Batum Oblast under Russian rule) witnessed numerous strikes and bloody crackdowns during the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907. During World War I, Adjarian muhajirs (emigrants to Turkey) formed a division within the Turkish army. Upon the evacuation of the Russian forces following the ceasefire of December 18, 1917, on 14 April 1918 the Ottoman 37th Caucasian Division entered Batum. In 1915, in the course of the ongoing war against Ottoman Empire, the Russian administration began deporting “refractory” Russian-subject Muslims from the Batumi region to interior Russian provinces, drawing protests from Georgian intellectuals. Soon thereafter, Georgian deputies in the Russian Duma declared that the Muslims being deported were not Turks but Adjarians, who were “Georgian despite their Muslim religion, and therefore loyal Russians.” As a result of their protests, Grand Duke Georgi Mikhailovich presided over an investigation which ended its voluminous report with the conclusion that Adjarians were not hostile to the Russian regime. It blamed Cossacks and Armenians for the allegations of Adjarian disloyalty and accused them of instigating violent confrontations with local Muslims. In the end, Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich was persuaded to meet with Adjarian leaders, and even rewarded them for their loyalty. It was not until after the Russian Revolution of 1917, on January 26, 1918, that the investigation of alleged Adjarian treason was closed. British occupation On January 12, 1919 British expeditionary forces landed at Batumi to replace the Turkish troops. The Council for Batum Region — chaired by the Russian cadet P. Maslov — was created to govern Adjara as a provisional authority from 21 December 1918 to 28 April 1919. The Committee of the Liberation of Muslim Georgia, led by Memed Abashidze and Haidar Abashidze, had repeatedly spoken of