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Meskhetian Turks

Not to be confused with Meskhetians.

Meskhetian Turks
Total population
1944 deportee population only:
est. 400,000 in 1990[1]
(excludes pre-1944 muhacirs in Turkey)

current deportee population only:
500,000–600,000[2][3][4][5][6]
(excludes pre-1944 descendants in Turkey)
Regions with significant populations
 Georgia1,500[7][8]
 Turkey100,000–1,500,000 (latter including 19th and 20th century muhacir descendants)[9][10]
 Kazakhstan150,000–250,000[7][8][9]
 Azerbaijan90,000–130,000[7][8]
 Russia70,000–100,000[8][7][9]
 Kyrgyzstan42,000–55,000[7][8][9]
 Uzbekistan15,000–38,000[11][7][9]
 Ukraine8,000–15,000[7][11][9]
 United States9,000–16,000[11][7]
 Northern Cyprus180[7]
Languages
Meskhetian Turkish dialect
Azerbaijani  · Russian  · Georgian  · Kazakh
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam, minority Shia Islam[12][13]
Related ethnic groups
Karapapakhs
Meskhetian Turks in Karabük, Turkey

Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians,[14][15][16] Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans,[17] (Turkish: Ahıska Türkleri;[18][19] Georgian: მესხეთის თურქები Meskhetis turk'ebi) are a subgroup of ethnic Turkish people formerly inhabiting the Meskheti region of Georgia, along the border with Turkey. The Turkish presence in Meskheti began with the Ottoman military expedition of 1578,[20] although Turkic tribes had settled in the region as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[20]

Today, the Meskhetian Turks are widely dispersed throughout the former Soviet Union (as well as in Turkey and the United States) due to forced deportations during World War II. At the time, the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Turkish population in Meskheti who were likely to be hostile to Soviet intentions.[21] In 1944, the Meskhetian Turks were accused of smuggling, banditry and espionage in collaboration with their kin across the Turkish border. Expelled by Joseph Stalin from Georgia in 1944, they faced discrimination and human rights abuses before and after deportation.[22] Approximately 115,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia and subsequently only a few hundred have been able to return to Georgia as Georgia does not allow repatriation. Those who migrated to Ukraine in 1990 settled in shanty towns, inhabited by seasonal workers.[22]

  1. ^ Khazanov 1995, p. 202: "Because of the high birthrates their number is constantly increasing and, according to sources, has already reached 400,000 (Panesh and Ermolov, 1990)... It is true that the last Soviet census of 1989 gives a lower figure - 207,369; however, one should take into account that far from all Meskhetian Turks have been registered as such. For years many were even denied the right to register their nationality in legal documents. Thus, by 1988 in Kazakhstan, only one third of them were recorded as Turks on their passports. The rest had been arbitrarily declared members of other ethnic groups.."
  2. ^ Aydıngün et al. 2006, 1
  3. ^ Seferov & Akış 2011, 393.
  4. ^ Today's Zaman (15 August 2011). "Historic Meskhetian Turk documents destroyed". Today's Zaman. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  5. ^ Kanbolat, Hasan (7 April 2009). "Return of Meskhetian Turks to Georgia delayed". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 25 January 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  6. ^ Assembly of Turkish American Associations (5 February 2008). "ATAA and ATA-SC Visit Ahiska Turks in Los Angeles". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Al Jazeera (2014). "Ahıska Türklerinin 70 yıllık sürgünü". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d e Aydıngün et al. 2006, 13
  9. ^ a b c d e f Karcı, Durmuş (2018), "The Effects of Language Characters and Identity of Meskhetian Turkish in Kazakhstan", The Journal of Kesit Academy, 4 (13): 301–303
  10. ^ Bursa'da Ahıskalıların vatandaşlık kuyruğu!, Bursada Bugün, 2018, retrieved 30 August 2021
  11. ^ a b c Aydıngün et al. 2006, 14
  12. ^ Aydıngün et al. 2006, 15
  13. ^ An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires.
  14. ^ Documents of the Helsinki Monitoring Groups in the U.S.S.R. and Lithuania (1976–1986), U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986, p. 97
  15. ^ Geyer, Michael; Fitzpatrick, Sheila (2009), Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared, Cambridge University Press, p. 222, ISBN 9780521897969
  16. ^ Hille, Charlotte (2010), State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus, Brill, p. 241, ISBN 9789004179011
  17. ^ Turkish Ahiskan American Foundation, Charity Navigator, retrieved 26 September 2021
  18. ^ page78.
  19. ^ "ahiskalilar.org (turkish)". Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  20. ^ a b Aydıngün et al. 2006, 4
  21. ^ Bennigsen & Broxup 1983, 30.
  22. ^ a b "Clashes force 2,000 Meskhetian Turks to flee Ukraine - World Bulletin". World Bulletin. Retrieved 3 February 2016.

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