Imerkhevi was historically one of the subregions that made up
Shavsheti, a medieval Georgian fiefdom on the upper course of the Imerkhevi or Berta river, east of
Nigali, west of the
Arsiani Range (Yalnızçam), and bounded by
Adjara on the north. After these territories were conquered by the
Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, Imerkhevi (İmerhev) became a
sanjak and its people gradually converted to Islam. The territory was acquired by the
Russian Empire through the
Treaty of Berlin in 1878. Shavsheti and Imerkhevi were organized into the Shavsheto-Imerkhevsky circuit (
uchastok) as part of the
Batum Oblast. As of 1886, the circuit had a population of 18,319, of which 41.2% were Georgians, 51.3% Turkified Georgians, and 7.0% Armenians. Following the turmoil of
World War I (1914–1918) and the short-lived independence of
Georgia (1918–1921), Imerkhevi became a part of
Turkey according to the territorial rearrangements in the 1921 treaties of
Moscow and
Kars. ==Population==