Georgia readies to tackle return of Meskhetian Turks
TDN
Sunday, April 23, 2006
‘We’re aware of Turkey’s positive approach toward the people who were
deported from the Caucasus. Today people of Caucasian origin are the
most loyal citizens of Turkey, enjoying all the rights. We have no
doubt that Turkey will help us,’ says Khaindrava
FULYA OZERKAN [blackdot.gif] ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
The Georgian government is taking important steps to facilitate the
resettlement of displaced Meskhetian Turks, a lesser known group of
victimized people who were deported en masse in 1944 by the Soviet
regime.
“A bill on the return of the Meskhetians is almost ready and is
currently being reviewed by experts in Strasbourg. We’ll pass it
along to Parliament as soon as we get the experts’ report … and
resolve this dispute,” Giorgi Khaindrava, Georgian state minister for
conflict settlement, said during a conference at Ankara’s Middle East
Technical University (ODTU).
Khaindrava, who is also head of a Georgian committee on the issue of
the return of Meskhetian Turks, was in Turkey last week for an official
visit. The Georgian minister held talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul as well as with other Turkish officials during his five-day stay
in Ankara, where discussion of the Meskhetian Turks issue was among
the topics.
Meskhetian Turks are the former Muslim inhabitants of Meskheti (now
Georgia) in an area bordering Turkey. Approximately 90,000 Meskhetian
Turks were deported to other parts of Central Asia in 1944 by former
Soviet ruler Josef Stalin and resettled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Uzbekistan.
Today, many members of Meskhetian families live in various countries
and hold citizenship of the countries in which they live. Dispersed
over a number of nations including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan,
Ukraine and the United States, many Meskhetian Turks aspire to
return to their ancestral homeland in Georgia. Only a relative
handful of displaced Meskhetian Turks have so far been permitted to
return. Approximately 2,000 Meskhetian Turks out of around 450,000
worldwide have returned to Georgia, according to official figures.
“The Soviet regime, not Georgia, exiled the Meskhetians, but the
Georgian government will resolve this problem,” Khaindrava said. The
Georgian government prefers to use the term “Meskhetians” instead of
“Meskhetian Turks.”
“We have already launched the process for the return of the
Meskhetians,” he added. “That’s what matters. It’s time to take
concrete steps, not to make rhetoric.”
Georgian officials have traveled to the countries where the Meskhetian
Turks now live, except for the United States, to work together with
the governments of those countries, searching their archives about
the tragedy in 1944. Having detailed information about Meskhetian
Turks living in various countries, Georgian officials also drew up
a roadmap on minority issues in cooperation with the European Court
of Human Rights to ensure an organized return.
“We want these people to regain rights that they lost over history;
we’ll grant them their rights,” Khaindrava said.
Despite various steps taken by the Georgian government to resolve
the decades-old dispute, many Meskhetian Turks are still not
satisfied. They say Georgia pledged to open its doors to the Meskhetian
Turks in 1999 when the country became a member of the Council of
Europe, but many claim the government has dragged its feet for years
and has not come up with a solution until the second half of 2005.
Georgian minister says resettlement process is problematic:
Khaindrava described the repatriation process of the Meskhetian Turks
as challenging and said the issue had two dimensions: the physical
return process — which he said was voluntary — and its financial
aspect.
“The Meskhetians who want to return will be able to do so as it is
strictly voluntary, but the return of around 450,000 people, which
amounts to 10 percent of the current Georgian population, is not
an easy matter,” Khaindrava said, drawing attention to demographic
changes in the southwestern part of Georgia, which was home to the
Meskhetian Turks.
Today the area’s population comprises 90 percent Armenians and a small
number of Greeks where the Meskhetian Turks used to live. As Georgia
is a mountainous country, there is also a scarcity of inhabitable
land in the southwestern part for the repatriates.
“Our main principle is that if you [the Meskhetian Turks] accept
Georgia as a home, the entire country is your home and the organized
process for their return will comprise resettlement in all of the
regions of Georgia,” Khaindrava said and reassured that the Meskethian
Turks would enjoy equal rights as any citizen of Georgia, including
the right to purchase property.
Khaindrava stressed that Georgia considered the presence of different
ethnic origins in the country as an indication of a rich “diversity”
rather than posing a problem.
The settlement process of hundreds of thousands of people requires
ample financial sources as well, and Georgia needs to prepare its
infrastructure and organize its resources so as not to encounter
problems when those people return.
The Georgian minister called on the international community and
neighboring Turkey to extend their helping hands in sorting out
the matter.
“We are aware of Turkey’s approach toward the people who were deported
from the Caucasus. This is a positive approach. Today people of
Caucasian origin are the most loyal citizens of Turkey, enjoying all
the rights of citizenship. We have no doubt that Turkey will help us,”
he said.
It is not possible for all the displaced Meskhetian Turks to leave the
countries in which they currently live. Most of them have established
their lives and integrated with the societies in those countries. Some
live in countries that are more prosperous than Georgia, and it is
unlikely they will return.
“I want to say that it is not an easy process. The issue on the
number of people who want to return home will become clear within
one-and-a-half years, but we’ll not close the process, and they’ll
be able to return whenever they want,” said Khaindrava.