Meskheti Turks, along with Lezgins, Ingushes, Chechens and other Muslim nations, were forcefully deported to Central Asia at Stalin’s order, “ as nations with Turkic orientation, who couldn’t be relied on.” On November 14, 1944, in accordance with an order from the Central Committee of the USSR, 92,000 Meskhetis were forcefully loaded into train cars.

They had been living in southern Georgia, in Samtskhe Javakheti. In the Adigen region the Meskhetis had lived in thirty villages.  In the Akhaltska and Aspinza regions they had lived closely, in densely populated areas, but in Javakheti there were only two Muslim villages. 

Today, there are 400-450,000 Meskheti Turks living in CIS countries and Turkey. Of all the nations deported by Stalin, only the Meskheti were never allowed to return to their homeland. All of the others, some sooner, some later, eventually went home. 

In1999, Georgia joined the Council of Europe and took on an obligation to allow the repatriation of Meskheti to Georgia. According to that obligation the repatriation process must be completed by 2012.

But the majority of the Samtskhe Javakheti population opposes repatriation.

“The Turks forcibly assimilated our ancestors, forced them to accept Islam. If they refused, then the Turks would force them to carry 100-kilo bags filled with construction materials from Orgori to Akhaltskha. Georgians were forced to sing in Turkish at weddings,” recounted Amira Jvaridze, a member of the Azpintsa city council who was born in the village of Chobareti. 

In 1944, 242 Meskhetis were deported from the village of Ude village in Akhaltskha. To this day, the residents of that village remember very well the problems they had while living with the Muslim Meskhetis.

“There were only Tatars living all around us [In Georgia all Muslims are usually referred to as Tatars]. There were only two Georgians families in the village. A woman couldn’t go out alone; she would have been raped and killed. Men were not only constantly mugged by Turks, who would take the food they were taking home, but they [Turks] would also leave them without clothes,” recalled Petri Aghoshashvili, and eighty-year-old resident of Ude.

He thinks it’s unlikely that the Muslim Meskhetis will want to return to Georgia, due to the current difficult economic situation.

“Last year my Muslim Meskheti neighbor came.  He has nine children. I asked him if he wanted to come back. He replied that when they were living in Georgia, his father was a brigadier, but despite that the family was always hungry. Now, according to him, the situation in Georgia is not much better, so why should he come back?”

Locals say the village of Muskhi was burned four times. With such harsh memories, this village of 300 is unilaterally against the return of the Meskhetis.

“Nobody will let them into the village. If necessary, there will be physical violence,” said Teymuraz Ivanidze, a resident of Muskhi.

Yet Tamara Gvirgishvili of the village of Chobareti has only good memories of Muslim Meskhetis. “Living with Tatars was a normal thing for us. We would frequently be asked to be godfathers for them, and they for us. Or for instance, my mother said that in the past, when Turks attacked, the Muslim Meskheti often saved us, hid us in their houses.”

“According to statistics, there are about 700 Meskhetis, or some 180 families, living in Georgia. Eighteen of these families have settled in Samtkhe-Javakheti; twelve have taken Georgian surnames.

Muslim Meskheti Mamuka Khutzishvili has lived in Akhaltskha for ten years now. His youngest son Davit was born in Georgia. Years ago, Mamuka’s grandmother was deported to Central Asia from the village of Tzakhni in the Adigen region. Before coming to Akhaltskha, Mamuka lived in Stavropol, Russia, where he worked as a railroad station manager.

 “For me the moral aspect was more important than the material. I was proud that I was a son of the land of Davit, Shota, and Tamar, but in my passport it was written that I was ethnic Azeri and I couldn’t speak Georgian. Now I am a citizen of Georgia; my children go to Georgian school, learn Georgian history and speak fluent Georgian, “ said Mamuka Kutzushvili.

According to him, “all kinds of horror stories about Meskhetis” do not correspond to reality. “They are all leftovers from the Soviet Era, KGB-created propaganda. I myself do not want the Council of Europe to ask my country take back its own people, but we, like you want to live in our own country.”

Muslim Meskheti Anzor Beridze’s family moved to Ogurgeti from Azerbaijan in 1960. Today Beridze’s family lives in their native village of Mugareti in the Akhaltskha region. According to Gulia Kharadze, Anzor Beridze’s wife, her husband often considered leaving everything and going back to Azerbaijan, on account of the coldness they encountered in the village. 

“We were treated like enemies. At first I was afraid they would harm my children. But with time everything changed. Now they even say about me ‘she is worth ten Georgians,’” said Gulia Kharadze.
But despite the friendly attitude towards the Beridze family, the people of Mugareti population are unanimously against the return of other Meskheti Muslims.

“Beridze’s family are no different from Georgians. But three years ago, when one of the neighbors wanted to sell his house to Muslim Meskhetis, the whole village revolted. In this question we will always be united, no Tatars will enter the village,” said resident Luisa Tzikarishvili.

The neighbors of the Muslim Meskheti Mekhriev family, who live in the village of Abastuman in the Adigen region, take a completely different view.  

 “We are always together, during happy or sad times. We drink the same water, eat the same bread. We live like good neighbors. I don’t think that the return of other Meskheti Turks will become a problem. Some are afraid, they think they will lose everything, be left without land or bread. But it won’t happen like that; if we become close and help each other everything will be fine, “ said Roman Sturua, the Mekhriev family’s neighbor.

Tzira Meskhishvili, president of an NGO called Tolerant, does not think that the passage of the law means that the repatriation of Muslim Meskhetis will immediately begin. Those who dreamed about Georgia and wanted to return have died already, and the young are not in a hurry to return, because of the tough economic situation in Georgia. But Meskhishvili thinks that “the acceptance of law by the parliament means recognition of moral rehabilitation. It means that illegally deported people will again have a homeland.”

And finally, the views of Armenians in Javakheti.

“The people are very worried about the repatriation law. The land on which Armenians now live is their property. Where will the Meskhetis live? Where will they buy land? Will the locals be forced from their property? Are Armenians to blame that sixty years ago Stalin deported them [Meskhetis] from here?” said member of the NGO Javakhk Norik Karapetyan.

David Rstakyan, president of the unlicensed Virk party, said, “Muslim Meskhetis are returning to places from which they were deported. Maybe in the beginning they agreed to settle in other regions, but in time they will start returning to Samtskhe Javakhetia, near the Turkish border. And the land there has been privatized. Where are they going to live?

“Muslim Meskhetis lived in two villages in the Akhalkalaki region-Kilda and Okami. They were forcefully deported from their birthplaces. But the settlement of these places wasn’t easy for Armenians or for Georgians. As a human being I feel sorry for Muslim Meskhetis and understand their desire to come back. But isn’t it true that the homeland of their descendants is Ferghana, and that the young generation has never seen Georgia?
“The locals live in very harsh social conditions. It is hard to understand how Georgia could take on such an obligation. The repatriation of Muslim Meskhetis may create major conflicts and tensions.”

Said Misha Melkonyan, a resident of Akhaltskha, “ I don’t know of any citizen of Georgia who would agree to the return of Muslim Meskhetis. But if the president has decided, what can ordinary people do? Because of the harsh economic conditions we are already barely surviving, and land here is already scarce.  Where are they going to live? Besides, I seriously doubt that they remember Georgian traditions. There is nothing Georgian in them. Why do they want to come here?”

Tamuna Uchidze
Akhaltskha. Special to Hetq