Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Georgia: Meskhetian Turks Closer to Return
New draft law guarantees return of deported people to Georgia but
promises no help with resettlement.
By Natia Kuprashvili in Tbilisi and Nino Gerzmava in Ianeti (CRS
No. 406 17-Aug-07)
`This law reminds me of the well-known Georgian song where they tell a
multi-coloured butterfly, `Don’t fly away, but don’t come flying
here,” said Madin Mamedov.
Mamedov is one of a small community of 1,200 Meskhetian Turks who
settled in Georgia in the 1970s, some 30 years after they were
deported from there by Stalin. He lives in a close-knit community in
the village of Ianeti in the Samtredi region of western Georgia.
Now he and his fellow-villagers are facing the prospect of tens of
thousands of other Meskhetian Turks returning to Georgia, following
the long-awaited passage of a law on repatriation in the country’s
parliament.
Mamedov worries that after 60 years of waiting, many of them will fall
at the bureaucratic hurdles created by the new law.
`Most of my kinsfolk live in terrible poverty,’ he said. `Many of them
will have no documentation to confirm that they were deported. They
will be unable to put their documents in order and won’t be able to
return to the homeland at their own expense.’
The Meskhetian Turks have had a tragic history of multiple exile. They
were originally a Muslim population living in Meskhetia, now part of
the Samtse-Javakheti region of south-western Georgia. They generally
prefer to call themselves Akhiska Turks.
Stalin deported a number of ethnic groups – Chechens and Ingush,
Crimean Tatars and others – during the Second World War out of a
paranoid concern that they might be less than loyal in case of
invasion. In November 1944, it was the Meskhetians’ turn, and all of
them were rounded up and despatched to Central Asia, with thousands
dying en route in disease-ridden cattle trucks.
Violent clashes targeting Meskhetians in the Fergana Valley in 1989
prompted tens of thousands of them to flee Uzbekistan, where many had
lived since deportation. Most are now scattered across the former
Soviet Union, especially in Azerbaijan and southern Russia. Estimates
of their numbers range from 60,000 to 200,000.
In 1998, the Council of Europe made the repatriation of the
Meskhetians a condition of Georgia’s accession to the institution. The
council gave Tbilisi two years to pass a law on repatriation, three
years to begin the actual return and 12 years overall to complete the
entire process.
The first repatriation bill was drawn up in 2005 by the new government
that followed the `Rose Revolution’. That law was drafted under the
supervision of Giorgi Khaindrava, the then state minister for
resolution of conflicts. One of the authors of that bill, Temuri
Lomsadze, has helped draft the new law that went through parliament in
a first reading on June 22.
Lomsadze, who is now a consultant with the European Centre for
Minority Issues, admitted that the repatriation process might not be
completed by the year 2011, as promised.
`However, the exact number of repatriates will be established during
the coming year,’ he said. `The greatest merit of this law is that it
allows for the Muslim Meskhetians to be finally rehabilitated.’
`This law differs considerably from the document that was drawn up in
Khaindrava’s time on the orders of President Mikheil Saakashvili,’ he
said. `We’ve removed from that bill whole chapters where the state
pledged to assist the process of adaptation and integration of the
returnees.’
Khaindrava, now an opposition activist, is critical of the new law for
precisely this reason, saying it gives the Meskhetians nothing to
return to.
Apart from rehabilitation [restitution for their deportation], what
the Muslim Meskhetians want most is to return to their motherland,’ he
said. `But the new law does nothing to promote the return process.’
The new law grants the right of return to the individuals deported in
1944 and their family members. Those who want to do so have one year
from January 1, 2008 to submit an application either to the Georgian
consulate in their country or at the ministry for refugees and
resettlement in Tbilisi.
More controversially, applicants also have to provide documents to
confirm they were deported.
Although the governing majority in parliament is backing the bill,
other deputies have criticised it, albeit for sometimes conflicting
reasons.
The law’s most bitter opponents belong to the Conservative Party,
which is against a large-scale influx of Meskhetians as a matter of
principle.
`This law goes against the interests of our country,’ said party
member Kakha Kukava. `It is a time bomb for Georgia.’
David Berdzenishvili, a parliamentarian from the Republican Party, is
unhappy with the law for a different reason – he argues that it
`creates hidden mechanisms for preventing any actual return’.
In Ianeti, the head of the village administration Gia Kopaleishvili
said that from his experience, a large-scale population return would
need to be planned carefully.
`In the [Seventies and] Eighties, the Muslim Meskhetians were
resettled without any prior calculations or planning,’ he said. `As a
result, what we have is an impoverished community isolated from the
outside world and poorly integrated. The repatriation process should
be carried out so as to ensure that there are no more places like
Ianeti in this country.’
The Meskhetians live apart from the main village of Ianeti in a tiny
settlement of 26 households known simply as `Plot 9′.
Kopaleishvili feels `a different faith and the language barrier’ keeps
the Meskhetians isolated from their Georgian neighbours, who are
Orthodox Christians. The Meskhetians speak Turkish rather than
Georgian, although the children are now learning the latter at school.
The Meskhetians of Plot 9 expressed a sense of isolation from the
wider community.
`The [Georgian] locals come to us only to buy sheep,’ said one man,
Aziz Mamedov. `They smile but they still call us Turks behind our
backs. The politicians appear just before election time to win our
votes. They promise us better living conditions, jobs, a new clinic
and lots more but few of these promises are ever delivered.’
Yet both communities say integration is happening. Magda
Chinijishvili, a journalist from nearby Kutaisi, says the Meskhetians
of Ianeti have `changed enormously’ in the last few years and identify
much more strongly with Georgia.
Madin Mamedov recounted with tears in his eyes how his parents, wife
brother and nephew had all died after resettling in Ianeti, and then
his five-year-old son was accidentally killed by a shell.
`From the day I came to Georgia I have been dogged by death,’ he
said. `But despite that, I love my home, my village and my country. I
am part of Georgia. I haven’t for one second considered leaving.’
The prospect of friends and relatives being allowed to return is
making the Meskhetians feel more secure.
`It’s important for us to know that someone remembers us,’ said
villager Shah-Murad Bekadze. `They finally understood that it’s
vitally important for a bird to have its nest. Help us get our
relatives and family members back here. It doesn’t matter which corner
of Georgia they live in. The important thing is that we’re all living
under one roof in the same country.’
Natia Kuprashvili is the Georgian-language editor of IWPR’s Caucasus
newspaper Panorama; Nino Gerzmava is a correspondent for the paper.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress