Lahana.Org

           The first historian in the century A.D. who referes to the Laz people as an ethnic community is Plinius .In the second century the Laz peple lived in the region between Sukhimi and Trebizond .The people whom the Romans and Byzantines called “Laz” were called “Mingrelian” by the Georgians and the Abkhaz – Abazas ; while their country yaht the Romans and Byzantines called “Lazica “ was called Egrisi by the Georgians and the Abkhaz – Abazas .

            The Laz people has had the close relations with yhe administrative and cultural region of Colchis became prevalent along Black Sea towards Trebizond in the South, and Crimea in the north .

            The Homeric Age Greeks were interested in Colchis .The Argonauts, sailing Black Sea, went to Colchis the country of King Aeetes , to take away “the Golden Fleece” .

            The various written documents, that belong to the period B.C . , relate that clans , who lived in the north east of Blacksea coast , were relative to the people who lived in Colhic, and they were relative to the people who lived in Colchic , and they were welded together .

           In the first century the Laz people , who was caled the Colchian people in the past B.C., first struggled against tha Pontos Kingdom , efter that against the Roman Empire for the independence . Between c.69 and c.79, the leader of the Laz peple, Anicetus, led his people to fight against Romans.The Romans did not easily leave that land that was a very strategic area .But they were to leave Lazica because of independence war of Laz people.In the course of several years Lazica became stronger , and reigned over the region, that is today called Western Georgia .Konowing that the Kings of Lazica were not to be loyal, and thatthe Laz population of the east of Trebizond was a otential danger ,the Byzant,um made and practised a plan which would part the Abkhaz and Svan peoples from the Kingdom of Lazica.The purpose of Byzantium was abolish the ethnic and political power of Lazica , and make end of it .The intention of Byzatium , if needed was to set the Abkhaz , Svan and Laz peoples at loggerheads with .

         In the eight century there was no the Kingdom of Lazica .The Laz people between Trebizond and the Chorokhi valley was under the control of Byzantium . When the Ottomans put an end to the Byzantium Empire , Mehmed 2 had an intention to make Black Sea an Ottoman lake . After the Ottomans conquered the Kingdom of Trebizond in 1461 , the Laz people gradually became the subject of the Ottoman Empire . In a process , the Laz people, becoming moslem , were secured to be the Otoman subject .

            In 1519 Trebizond , including Bathys , was made a province. According to Evliya Chelebi , who visited there in 1640 , the five subdivisions of province were as following : Canik , Trebizond , Gonio , the lower Bathys and the upper Bathys. The capital of the Lazistan was Gonio . Atina , Sumla , Viche  and Arhavi were her towns. The Laz people had an authonomy until 1580 .

          During the independence war of Turkey , the Laz sailors brought the weapons and ammunition in large amount from Bathys to Samsun . The Laz people, like other Ottoman subjects , were self sacrificing and laborious at the process of establishing the republic of Turkey .In thi period, according to the dominant ideology of “the single nation” and “single language” , the province of Lazistan was cancelled . The historical sites , where the Laz people has lived , were renamed . 

        The Laz and Mingrelian languages are traced back to the ancient Colchian language by the linguists . The South Caucasian  language familiy includes the Zan ( Mingrelian and Laz language ) , the Svan language and the Georgian language .