Zekeriyaköy
The oldest known name of the village is Zekerya. This name must have been derived from the Georgian Zağaria (ზაღარია). It also appears as Zekerya (زكریا) in the 1574 Ottoman detailed register and in Muvahhid Zeki's 1927 Ottoman Turkish book.
The fact that Zekerya is mentioned in the 1574 Ottoman census register titled Defter-i Mufassal-i Vilayet-i Gürcistan and the existence of an old church in the village indicate that it was settled before the Ottoman period. Indeed, the Ottomans captured the village, located in the historical region of Klarceti, in the mid-16th century from Samtshe-Saatabago, another Georgian state that ruled this region after the united Kingdom of Georgia. Zekerya was one of the villages belonging to the Ardanuç district, which was established immediately afterwards and was part of the Ardanuç province. The Ardanuç province consisted of 58 villages, eight of which were abandoned in 1574 and 11 in 1595. Zekerya was recorded as “vacant” in both the 1574 Defter-i Mufassal-i Vilayet-i Gürcistan and the 1595 Defter-i Mufassal-i Liva-i Ardanuç census registers.
