Tiblisi, Rabi Thani 3/Jun 14 (IINA) – Georgia was once owned by the Turkic people known as the Meshket Turks, who originally came from Central Asia and then spread out across the Caucasus, according to historical and archeological records. Under the rule of the Meshket Seljuk Muslims, the region prospered both economically and politically, and was an independent entity between the Christian Georgian-ruled areas and the Turkish Empire.

In 1555, the Meshket region came under the hegemony of the Ottoman Empire, and remained so for three centuries. But in 1829 there was a treaty whereby the Russians who had defeated the Turks in a war imposed their own hegemony on at least part of the Meshket region. However, the life of the Meshket Muslims was not the happiest one under the Russians, and by the early 19th century this region, like other regions in the Caucasian, witnessed deportation, and this process was being actively assisted by the Armenians, and because of Turkey’s continued weakness, the region became a Russian vassal. And when the Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, the whole area was under Russian subjugation.

When the Russians were fighting the Germans in the First World War, Stalin sent not less than 40,000 of Meshket Muslims to fight for Communist Russia, against their will, and not less than 20,000 died in that war. As if that was not enough, Stalin then started to deport all those who survived, as a result of which the Meshketians became a landless people. In 1944, the Meshket region was given by Stalin to Georgia, his birthplace. When he thought that Turkey might conclude a pact with Hitler’s Germany, he continued the deportation of Meshket Muslims from the Soviet part of Russia, to Central Asia, and their place was taken up by Armenians and Georgians.

In the process of deportations, many of the Meshketians perished, particularly children and the elderly.

Even when Khruschev condemned the Stalinist regime in 1956, he never said a word about the Meshket Muslims, their deportation and suffering, let alone their right to return to their original homeland. But the Meshket did not keep quiet, and started to agitate for their rights, including their right to return to their original homeland, and formed organizations that would speak for them. But the Russians did not like this, and they started to suppress the Meshketians and falsely accused them of all sorts of crimes, many of them were arrest, persecuted and incarcerated.

But the reason behind the resistance of the Georgians and Russians to the Meshket’s return and resettlement was more religious than demographic, in that they feared that the Meshketians being Muslims would strengthen Islam in the region. Helping in all these efforts of resisting the return of the Meshketians to their homeland are the Armenians, because of their fear that the lands they took over from the expelled Meshketians would be restored to their original owners.

Georgia accepted the principle of return of the Meshketian, but on condition that they do not lay any claim to any land, and that they change their names to Georgian ones, and thus completely forget their right to their ancestral land. Some did accept these conditions, but they are living in appalling conditions, apart from the hostility they are facing from the Armenians. The Armenians claim that the land is theirs, and they have no wish to share it with the Meshket Turks. In any event, there are only 184 Meshket families who have been allowed to return to Georgia, and even these are not allowed to settle in the area of Meshketia.

Despite all their agitation for their human rights, including their right to return to their homeland, the Meshket Muslims are not welcome in Georgia, and those. They are not allowed even to register themselves, let alone buying property and getting decent employment, neither in Georgia nor in Russia. "The Meshketian condition is no better than that of the Chechen Muslims who are still suffering from Russian persecution and discrimination," observes one writer.

The matter was taken up with the European Commission, and in September 2000 the return of the Ahiska Turks to Georgia was discussed and a 12-year plan for their gradual return was devised. But Georgia would have nothing of the sort, and has been continuing its policy of forcing the Meshketians to adopt Georgian names and surnames and a Georgian identity, while Armenians are not subjected to the same requirements and are free to maintain their own cultural and ethnic identity. In fact, the Armenians enjoy a good degree of autonomy to run their affairs, a right that is absolutely forbidden to the Meshketians.