Reuters, UK
June 9 2005

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on Mesketian Turks

Source: IRIN

BISHKEK, 9 June (IRIN) – The status of thousands of Mesketian Turks
living in Kyrgyzstan remains unresolved, more than half a century
after being deported to the former Soviet republic by Stalin in the
forties.

“Several days ago, I was very sick but I could not get treatment in
hospital because I do not have citizenship, I still have the red
Soviet passport. I am an invalid (disabled person). Last year I paid
US $50 to lie in hospital,” with tears in her eyes, Gulchehra
Hazikova, a 48-year-old Meshitin-Turk, told IRIN in Novopavlovka
village, near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

“After the events in Ferghana valley in 1989 [ethnic riots that led
to an exodus] I moved with my family to Kabardino-Balkaria [in the
north Caucasus region of the Russian Federation]. I came to
Kyrgyzstan in 1993, but still cannot get Kyrgyz citizenship,” Faramuz
Ahmedov, another Mesketian Turk from the same community, said.

Nearly 100,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia from
their native Georgia in 1944 on Stalin’s orders. Russia considered
the Meskhetian Turks a problem on several fronts. As Turkish-speaking
Muslims, Meskhetian Turks had strong social ties to Turkey and proved
to be resistant as a group to Soviet assimilation. Roughly 15,000
people died of starvation or cold en route.

It has been suggested that Stalin saw Meskhetians as potential
troublemakers, despite the fact that Meskhetians had exhibited no
signs of disloyalty. On the contrary, more than half the 40,000
Meskhetian Turks in the Red Army died fighting Nazi forces.

In the 60 years since deportation, Meskhetian Turks have integrated
into the region with varying degrees of success but their sense of
ethnic and social identity remains strong. They continue to lobby for
repatriation to Georgia. In Kyrgyzstan they are often subject to
discriminatory and abusive treatment by the local authorities who may
grant or may withhold residence permits.

In June 1989 tragedy struck the Meskhetian community a second time.
The outbreak of ethnic violence in the Ferghana Valley area of
Uzbekistan prompted them to uproot themselves again. Meskhetians were
once again scattered across Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan
and Turkey.

According to Gulkiz Gasanova, executive secretary of the Turkish
National Centre in Bishkek, an NGO supporting the group, there are at
least 2,000 people in Kyrgyzstan are in the same situation as
Gulchehra and Faramuz, rendering them effectively stateless.

The official Meshketian Turk population in Kyrgyzstan is put at more
than 33,000 people but the unofficial figure is around 50,000 people.
Many of them have had their ethnic and national identity erased and
their passports simply state they are Azerbaijani, Georgian or
Armenian.

“It is very sad that I cannot even have my native nationality,” Umar
Uysupov, a Meskhetian Turkish elder living in Ala-Archa, a village
close to the capital, noted, as he showed IRIN his Soviet-era
passport that records his nationality as Georgian. The majority of
Meshketian Turks, after the events in the Uzbek part of the Ferghana
valley, moved to Russia and Azerbaijan. This wave of Meshketian
migration to Kyrgyzstan was from 1993-1997. But many returned to
Central Asia to be with relatives, as it was difficult to secure
permits to stay in Russia.

Those who stayed in Kyrgyzstan were promised that after five years
they would be eligible for citizenship but most are still waiting.

“We raised this issue with the National Committee on Citizenship
within the Ministry of Internal affairs and even asked former
president Akaev but there were only promises. We have asked UNHCR
[office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] here
and now we are waiting for its response,” added Gasanova.

“I went to Azerbaijan in 1989 from Fergana and lived there for six
years, in an old railway carriage, it was very difficult. I could not
get permission to stay there, so I moved to Kyrgyzstan in 1995
because my brother was there, and helped me. You cannot imagine, I
had nothing; I left everything in my house in Ferghana. Now here I
have [a] two rooms house, which we built ourselves but still do not
have Kyrgyz citizenship,” Hazikova told IRIN.

The group say they suffer discrimination, a lack of medical treatment
and no proper jobs or education.

“I cannot work legally here because it is necessary to have [a]
passport. My passport is not valid now,” Ahmedov told IRIN. “I am
afraid to go out, because the police stop me frequently.”

Kyrgyz authorities say the problem is basically administrative. “If a
person have been living in Kyrgyzstan for more than five years,
he/she can apply for Kyrgyz citizenship through the local district,”
Erkin Arapbaev, deputy head of the passport section of the Kyrgyz
Ministry of Interior Affairs, told IRIN.

“There are some categories of people who apply but do not have the
right documents. People themselves have to gather documents, it is
not our obligation,” Arapbaev said.

Many Meshketian Turks have married locally, which creates further
problems. The majority are living without marriage certificates or
birth certificates for their children, though in some cases bribery
may help obtain the documents.

“Children who are born to parents who do not have citizenship, like
many Meshketian Turks, do not have documents, so they cannot get
medical treatment, they cannot go to school, so education among this
group is very low,” commented Gasanova.

Many are hoping the recent regime change in Bishkek will mean a
change of policy towards Meshketian Turks and other former Soviet
citizens such as Kurds and some Uzbeks who have no legal status in
Kyrgyzstan.