In the late 1980s the city was host to the Soviet Army's 10th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which became a brigade of the Georgian land forces after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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In the 12th–13th centuries it was the seat of the Akhaltsikhelis, dukes of Samtskhe, whose two most illustrious representatives were Shalva and Ivane Akhaltsikheli (of Akhaltsikhe).
A battle under the walls of Akhaltsikhe during the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829 on August 9 (August 21 O.S., 1828) between 9,000 Russians under Field-Marshal Paskevich and 30,000 Turks under Kios-Mahomet-Pasha.
Surkhay-khan II gave many battles of which the largest were at Tiflis, Derbent, Khosrekh, Chirakh, Kurakh, Kartukh, Alazani, Quba, Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Kartli, Kakheti, fortress Surkhayli in Cherkessia, Ganja, Yerevan, Kars, Ardagan and Erzurum.
The Jaqeli traced their origin to the late 9th-century nobleman Beshken, of the Chorchaneli, whose descendants possessed the valleys of Jaqi, Postkhovi (modern Posof, Turkey), and Uraveli (near Akhaltsikhe, Georgia).
The family Islamized during the Ottoman conquest of the southern Georgian province of Akhaltsikhe in the 16th century, but then partially removed to Inner Kartli, reconverted to Christianity, and was enfeoffed with the locale called Khashuri in 1630.
In spite of a thorough Russian search, in 1818, Alexander fought his way to Akhaltsikhe and managed to safely reach Persia where the shah gave him a pension and some Armenian-populated villages in Salmas.