Having behind 69 years in exile, the Meskhetian Turks still await repatriation!

ABTTF President Halit Habipoğlu: “We support our compatriots Meskhetian Turks in their cause for repatriation to their homeland!”

Today, 14 November 2013, marks 69 years for Meskhetian Turks being sent to exile from their an-cestral land Meskheti in South-western Caucasus, a region currently situated within the borders of Georgia. Stalin ordered the exile on 14 November 2014, in the very same day with the incursion on 220 villages inhabited by Meskhetian Turks who were forced to leave within two hours in trains to deserts of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The deportation caused 30.000 Meskhetian Turks, out of which 17.000 were children, to die of starvation, cold and diseases.

A part of the exiles were sent to Siberia and no further news was received. Those who were placed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan had been subject to a specific administration for 12 years (1944-1956) when they were not allowed to leave the villages or towns they were settled in. Se-vere sentences were in place for those who did not obey the prohibitions on mobility. In 1957, though other nationalities in exile were allowed to return to their homelands, Meskhetian Turks were only given permission for limited mobility within the exile territories.

Following an ethnic tension in the region, the Meskhetian Turks living in Ferghana valley of Uzbeki-stan have violently been cracked down. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, return to homeland, i.e. Georgia, was projected and repatriation of the Meskhetian Turks had been one of the conditions for Georgia’s membership to the Council of Europe, which was concluded in 1999.

According to the “Repatriation Law” passed by the Georgian Parliament in 2007, the Meskhetian Turks were given the right to return to Georgia. Yet, the respective regulation received reactions from Meskhetian Turks on the grounds that it entails provisions for repatriation not only to their ancestral region, which is Meskheti in Georgia, but to entire Georgia and the identity cards to be given were to indicate ethnicity and religion as “Georgian and Christian” instead of “Turk and Mus-lim”.

Dispersed in 15 countries and more than 4000 settlements while living with the hope of returning to ancestral land, Meskhetian Turks’ struggle for their cause is going on.

Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) President Halit Habipoğlu says “Today, we commemorate the 69th year of deportation of the Meskhetian Turks by Stalin from their home-land. Meskhetian Turks have been awaiting return for 69 years. As the international representative of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority, who was contracted to remain in Greece in 1923 and who suffers from pressure and discriminatory policies since then, we can fully relate with Meskhetian Turks in their struggle for homeland. We support our compatriots Meskhetian Turks in their cause for repatriation to their homeland!”


*Photo: www.ahiska.net