ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 22 2007
Armenians of Javakhk oppose return of Meskheti Turks to region
YEREVAN, August 22. /ARKA/. Armenians of Javakhk (region of Georgia
populated by Armenians) strongly oppose return of Meskheti Turks to
the region, Chairman of `Javakhk’ Association MP Shirak Torosian told
ARKA agency. According to him, return of Meskheti Turks may aggravate
the situation in the region.
`Georgian Government is not very happy either for their return but
they are ready to do it due to the obligations to the Council of
Europe,’ Torosian said.
According to the MP, the Georgian Government intends to resettle
Meskheti Turks to Javakhk bearing in mind the low prices for land and
housing in the region.
`On whose territories and in whose houses they are going to live?
Everybody is aware of the problems existing in communication between
Armenian and Turkish population,’ Torosian said.
`As of now, no single Meskheti Turk is resettled in Javakhk, and, I
strongly believe, will not do it,’ he said.
On July 11 the Georgian Parliament passed the law about repatriation
of persons forcedly resettled from Georgia in 1940ies by the Soviet
authorities. No particular discussions were held while passing the
law.
Under the law, Meskheti Muslims called also Meskheti Turks are to
return to Georgia. The law envisages the procedure of the return,
submission of required documents and receiving of the repatriate
status and citizenship. Under the law, the deadline for the
applications to return to Georgia is January 1 2009.
According to the obligations to the Council of Europe, Georgia needs
to solve the issue by the end of 2011.
About 300,000 so-called Meskheti Turks (Muslim Georgians) living in
the south-eastern region of Georgia – Meskhetia – at the border with
Turkey, were resettled to the Central Asia in the mid 1940ies by the
order of the Soviet leadership. The Soviet authorities considered it
dangerous to have Muslim Georgians living at the Soviet-Turkish
border. Currently descendants of the forced re-settlers live in
Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey. N.V. -0–