MESKHETIAN TURKS

'Meskhetian Turks' are the former Muslim inhabitants of Meskheti (Georgia), along the border with Turkey. They were deported to Central Asia in 1944 by Joseph Stalin and settled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Today they are dispersed over a number of other countries of the former Soviet Union. A majority (more than 80%) of Meskhetian Turks are ethnic Turks (''Yerli'' (Turkish-speaking agriculturalists) and ''Terekeme'' (Azerbaijani-speaking pastoralists)) with Kurds and Hamshenis. A minority (about 20%) are descendants of indigenous Georgians who became Muslim in the 17th-18th centuries. The estimated population of Meskhetian Turks is around 300,000. They are known as ''Ahıska Türkleri'' (Akhaltsikhe Turks) in Turkey.
In May 1989 a pogrom^[1][2][3] of Meskhetian Turks occurred in the crowded and poor Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan as a result of growing ethnic tensions during the era of Glasnost. This triggered an evacuation of Meskhetian Turks from Uzbekistan.
In the 1990s, Georgia began to receive Meskhetian settlers, provided that they declared themselves to be of ethnic Georgian origin. Their resettlement created tension among the Armenian population of Samtskhe-Javakheti province. Azerbaijan accepted a number of Meskhetians, but faced problems with refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, and the government did not accept larger numbers. Turkey, seen as their "homeland" by many Meskhetian Turks themselves, started a program of resettling Meskhetian immigrants in the underprivileged, Kurdish majority eastern regions of the country. This program was for fewer than 200 families, and fell short of expectations. Meskhetians were also allowed to settle in the central oblasts of Russia, and those who settled there automatically received Russian citizenship in 1992. However the majority of them moved to Krasnodar Krai at their own will and so their legal status remained undetermined (4943 of them were Russian citizens and 7056 held no citizenship).^[4] It also caused tensions with local Cossack population.^[5]
Between February of 2004 and the end of 2007, and in cooperation with the governments of Russia and the United States (the State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration), the International Organization for Migration implemented a program to resettle Meskhetian Turks from the Krasnodar Krai to the United States. A total of 21,000 individuals applied to the program, of which 12,500 were approved by the U.S. government for refugee status. Approximately 11,500 ultimately departed.
__NOTOC__

Contents

See also

Notes

References

External links

See also

★ Turkic peoples

Notes

1. Pål Kolstø, Andrei Edemsky (1995), ''Russians in the Former Soviet Republics'', p. 224. Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253329175.
2. Kathleen. Collins (2006), ''Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia'', p. 2006. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521839505.
3. J. Otto Pohl (1999), ''Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949'', p. 18. Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313309213.
4.
О положении турок-месхетинцев в Краснодарском крае Российской Федерации, Russian Ministry of Foreign relations document
5. Revival of Cossacks Casts Muslim Group Out of Russia to U.S.

References

★ Robert Conquest, ''The Nation Killers: The Soviet Deportation of Nationalities'' (London: MacMillan, 1970) (ISBN 0-333-10575-3)

★ S. Enders Wimbush and Ronald Wixman, "The Meskhetian Turks: A New Voice in Central Asia," ''Canadian Slavonic Papers'' 27, Nos. 2 and 3 (Summer and Fall, 1975): 320-340

★ Alexander Nekrich, ''The Punished Peoples: The Deportation and Fate of Soviet Minorities at the End of the Second World War'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978) (ISBN 0-393-00068-0).

★ Emma Kh. Panesh and L.B. Ermolov (Translated by Kevin Tuite). Meskhetians. ''World Culture Encyclopedia''. Accessed on September 1, 2007.

External links

★ Open Society Institute, Forced Migration Projects: Meskhetian Turks

★ Meskhetians

★ Refugee life meets policy

★ Exiled by Alkan Chaglar