http://www.rferl.org/features/2001/05/25052001130649.aspGeorgia: Meskhetians Search For Cultural Identity (Part I)By Jean-Christophe Peuch
Under the Soviet regime, the Meskhetians -- a people of some 300,000 whose origins are in dispute -- suffered persecutions and mass deportations. More than half a century after they were uprooted from southern Georgia, they are now scattered across seven former Soviet republics, and are still seeking to gain formal rehabilitation and the right to return to their homeland. In this first of a two-part series on the Meskhetians, RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe Peuch reports from Tbilisi on the continuing controversy surrounding their national identity.
Tbilisi, 25 May 2001 (RFE/RL) -- When the former Soviet republic of Georgia joined the Council of Europe two years ago, it formally pledged to right one of the most patent historical injustices of the 20th century.
Among the 16 peoples that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered be deported in the final months of World War II was a 110,000-strong, Islamicized rural population living in Meskhetia, a mountainous region of Georgia located along the border with Turkey.
More than half a century after their 1944 deportation, the Meskhetians have not yet been officially rehabilitated. In fact, they are the only "punished people" -- as the late exiled Soviet historian Alexander Nekrich once described them -- that is still awaiting an official pronouncement that it has been historically wronged.
The Meskhetians have actually been uprooted twice. In 1989, after bloody pogroms in Central Asia's Ferghana Valley, tens of thousands of them were forced to leave Uzbekistan and resettle in other Soviet regions, mainly in Azerbaijan and in Russia's southern Krasnodar territory.
The traumas of both the 1944 deportation and the Ferghana pogroms left profound scars on the Meskhetians, who now live scattered in seven former Soviet republics: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia.
The reasons for Stalin's decision to deport hundreds of thousands of Meskhetians, Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, Balkars, Kalmuks, Karachais, and other ethnic minorities to the deserted regions of Central Asia remain unclear.
Officially, the Soviet dictator accused all these minorities of collaborating with the enemy after German troops conquered the Crimean peninsula and the Caucasus region in 1941 and 1942. But some historians have suggested that Stalin sought to take revenge against ethnic groups whose allegiance to the Soviet regime had been frail before the outbreak of the war.
As for why the Meskhetians in particular were deported, some analysts believe that Stalin wanted to cleanse southern Georgia of so-called "unreliable elements" in anticipation of an offensive against Turkey after the war ended.
Whatever theory is correct, the largely groundless collaboration charges against deported peoples were lifted after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes and personality cult in 1956.
Unlike most of the deported peoples, the Meskhetians were not allowed to return to their homeland after 1956 because southern Georgia was still considered a strategic area due to its proximity to the Turkish border.
Only in 1991, during Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, was a rehabilitation bill drafted by the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet. The bill provided for the return of the Meskhetians to their home region of Southern Georgia, but it was not adopted, no less implemented, because of the dissolution of USSR.
Who, exactly, are the Meskhetians, or Meskhis, as they are often called? They are, to begin with, a people known by several names. A 1998 OSCE-sponsored conference held in The Hague referred to them as "Meskhetian Turks." Georgian authorities prefer to use the term "Meskhetians," while the Meskhis sometimes call themselves "yerli musliman" -- Turkic for "local Muslim" -- or "Akhaltsikhe Turks" (ahisha turkleri) -- after Mesketia's chief town of Akhaltsikhe -- or simply "Turks."
Klara Baratashvili is the daughter of the late Meskhetian leader Latif-Shah Baratashvili, who was deported to Uzbekistan in 1944 with his entire family. Along with her brother Marat, she runs a non-governmental organization that is seeking formal rehabilitation for the 250,000 to 300,000 Meskhetians who are believed to live outside Georgia.
In an interview with our correspondent, Klara Baratashvili said her people should be considered part of the Georgian nation.
"The Meskhis are one of the components of the Georgian nation, one of its [original] tribes. They are Georgians in the same way that Kakhetians, Kartlians, or Imeretians are Georgians. They also played an important role in Georgia's history. The reason for this muddle [about their name] is that there's always been a confusion between nation and religion."
In the 16th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered southern Georgia and subsequently forced the majority of the local Orthodox Christian population to convert to Sunni Islam. The Meskhis subsequently adopted the customs of their new rulers, who registered them under Turkic names. Their language gradually turned into a combination of Georgian and Turkish idioms that has remained almost unaltered until now.
Confusion over the Meskhetians' ethnic origins grew when Georgia was forcibly annexed to the Russian empire in the 19th century. Considering Islamicized Meskhis simply as Turks, Russian settlers started calling them "Tatars," a term which was then used to describe all the empire's Muslim vassal populations.
When the Bolsheviks conquered Georgia, Armenia, and the neighboring Muslim republic of Azerbaijan in 1921, they compounded the confusion by using the term "Azerbaijanis" to designate Meskhetians.
The first organization to promote the return of the Meskhetians to their homeland appeared immediately after the deported people were allowed to leave their place of exile in 1956. But despite repeated protests and petitions to the highest Soviet authorities, the organization -- known as the Provisional Committee for the Return to the Homeland -- failed to achieve its goal.
A far more radical organization -- called "Vatan," after the Turkish word for "homeland" -- appeared in the aftermath of the 1989 Ferghana pogroms in an attempt to reinvigorate the repatriation process.
Vatan's leaders say that Meskhetians are ethnic Turks who speak a Turkic language and whose traditions resemble those of Turkey. They deny the existence of a specific Meskhetian nationality and they claim descent from Turkish settlers sent into Meskhetia during the Ottoman rule.
Rival organizations admit that Meskhetians living outside Georgia may sometimes consider themselves as ethnic Turks. But they argue this is largely due to a lack of information about their cultural and historical origins.
Vatan's belief that Meskhetians are "Georgified" Turks have made the organization unwelcome in Georgia, where it is not allowed to have representatives. Vatan is headquarted in Moscow and is particularly active in Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
Iso Molidze is a 29-year-old Meskhi who came to Georgia from his Kazakh hometown of Chimkent eight years ago. After he settled in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, he set up an association known as the International Youth Organization of Deported Meskhetians from Meskhetia.
Along with 40 other young Meskhetians and scores of refugees from Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, Molidze lives in a dilapidated building on the outskirts of Tbilisi's Gldani district. He told our correspondent:
"Young [Meskhetians] usually consider themselves Turks when they come here. But when they start learning [about their history], they start telling everybody that they are Georgians. Outside Georgia, they would never say that they are Georgians. Here in Georgia, it is different. Once they arrive here, they know that this is the end of the road. Their homeland is here."
Another factor complicating the ethnicity issue is that representatives of other minorities which are not ethnically Georgian were deported together with the Meskhis in 1944. Among them were Islamicized Armenians -- also known as Khamsheny or Khemshiny -- ethnic Turkish Taraqamas and ethnic Kurds.
Mikhail Mirziashvili is the director of Studio Re, a Georgian non-governmental organization that is completing a documentary film on the Meskhetians. He told RFE/RL that, despite their differences, all these ethnic groups are fighting for a common cause:
"These groups strongly differ one from another. They consider that they are all from Georgia. But 'yerlis' [that is, ethnic Georgian Meskhetians] would never recognize a Kurdish woman as one of theirs, even though these groups live and work together. In [the Kyrgyz capital] Bishkek, for example, the local Meskhetian organization is run by a Kurdish woman. Still, everybody knows that she is different."
Meskhetians generally agree that, even though some 10 percent of Georgia's population is Muslim, their nominally Islamic faith is among the main obstacles that prejudice Georgia's overwhelming Orthodox Christian majority against them.
Meskhetians also say Vatan's demands in the early 1990s that they be granted cultural and political autonomy once they were resettled in southern Georgia added fuel to the Georgian government's hostility.
Vatan leaders have since softened their stance. They no longer insist that Georgia grant Meskhetians special privileges, although they say it should recognize them as ethnic Turks.
Some experts consider Vatan's popularity in the early 1990s the result of Georgia's indifference toward the fate of those Meskhetians who had fallen victim to the Ferghana pogroms.
Zurab Burduli is a young Georgian lawyer who specializes in Meskhetian affairs. In an interview with RFE/RL, he said:
"In the 1980s, the Meskhetians were not pro-Turkish. But when they saw that the Georgian government was doing nothing to support them, that it was not even giving them the slightest hope that they could some day return to their homeland, they became pro-Turkish."
In 1992, the Turkish parliament voted to grant asylum to a limited number of Meskhetians. An estimated 10,000 Meskhetians are believed to have emigrated to Turkey since then, but Studio Re Director Mirziashvili says that many of them are not satisfied with their new life and are now considering returning to Central Asia.
The chief reason for the Meskhetians' troubles may simply lie in their history. Baratashvili says:
"The history of our [people] has been complicated by the fact that it always had to live on the borderline between two empires, between two religious confessions."
Meskhetian youth leader Molidze says he has never faced any hostility from his Georgian fellow students since he settled in Tbilisi. But he adds: "For us, the main problem is to learn Georgian language. For [the Georgians], the main problem is our faith."
http://www.rferl.org/features/2001/05/25052001125503.aspGeorgia: Meskhetian Issue Stirs Society (Part II)By Jean-Christophe Peuch
When Georgia became a member of the Council of Europe two years ago, it committed itself to the repatriation of Meskhetians deported in the early 1940s and their descendants. Recently, the Georgian government approved a draft repatriation bill that Meskhetian leaders and human rights groups describe as discriminatory. In this second part of a two-part series, RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe Peuch reports on the controversy from Tbilisi.
Tbilisi, 25 May 2001 (RFE/RL) -- The question of repatriating Meskhetians to their homeland has triggered passionate debates in Georgia and divided both public opinion and the political establishment.
Some people -- most of them Meskhetians -- believe that the former deportees and their descendants should be allowed to resettle in Meskhetia, the southern region where they lived until Stalin deported them in 1944.
But nationalist politicians are strongly opposed to repatriation. They say that the influx of tens of thousands of Muslims could ignite social and political troubles in the volatile Southern Caucasus republic.
The government denies any responsibility for deportations ordered by the Soviet regime. It says that it is ready to help the Meskhetians collectively return to Georgia -- but not to Meskhetia -- and to assist them in integrating into society.
There are no confirmed figures on the number of Meskhetians now living in CIS countries, but they are estimated at somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000.
Figures compiled by the Moscow-based Memorial human rights group show that up to 100,000 Meskhetians currently live in Kazakhstan. Another 60,000 are believed to have settled in Azerbaijan since the late 1950s. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan host 30,000 and 20,000 Meskhetians respectively, while another 10,000 live in Ukraine's Kherson region.
Some 70,000 Meskhetians have also settled in Russia, mainly in the southern Krasnodar region. Memorial and other human rights groups say they are harassed by Cossacks and local authorities, who deny them any legal status.
According to Guram Mamulia, who recently resigned as head of the government's Repatriation Service, the first Meskhetians who managed to return to Georgia in the late 1970s did so as individuals, not as an ethnic group. Mamulia says they numbered about 1,300 in the late 1980s, when half of them were driven out of the country by ethnic violence initiated by Georgia's nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Mamulia describes what happened:
"It was very brutal. There were collective beatings, attempts at intimidation, etc. Gamsakhurdia used to say that Meskhetians are Muslims, enemies of Georgia. 'Georgia first and foremost' was his motto, and he frightened people by saying that Georgia is an Orthodox country and that all non-Orthodox populations are enemies of the country. Other ethnic minorities also fell victim to abuses, but the Meskhetians were those who suffered most from [this violence]."
As a result of Gamsakhurdia's violent nationalism, more than 700 Meskhetians fled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan.
The situation of Georgia's ethnic minorities substantially improved immediately after Gamsakhurdia's ouster in 1992, and a few dozen Meskhetians managed to return to Georgia. But three years ago the Georgian parliament passed a law depriving all Meskhetians who had returned of the refugee status they had enjoyed since 1993. And only one in ten of the remaining 600 Meskhetians living in the country have so far been granted Georgian citizenship.
Alexander Nalbandov is the deputy head of the Georgian Security Council's Human Rights Department. In a talk with our correspondent, he reviewed the recommendations about the Meskhetians that the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly issued in 1999 prior to Georgia's accession to the pan-European body.
"To create within two years a legal basis for the repatriation of Meskhetian Turks, including granting of citizenship. To organize consultations with experts of the Council of Europe prior to the adoption of [a repatriation] law. The repatriation process should start within three years and should be completed within 12 years [after Georgia's admission to the Council of Europe]."
To meet these recommendations, the Georgian government earlier this year approved a draft bill that it says should provide a legal framework for the repatriation of Meskhetians and their integration into Georgian society.
This document -- a copy of which was obtained by RFE/RL -- states that repatriated Meskhetians will be entitled to apply for Georgian citizenship within one year after their return. Georgian authorities would be legally obliged to grant or deny citizenship within one month after the application is filed.
The government also says it will set up a state-funded educational program to help Meskhetians integrate into the society. The majority of Meskhetians today are not familiar with, no less fluent in, the Georgian language .
Lawyer Zurab Burduli is a co-author of the draft law that was approved by the government. In an interview with RFE/RL, he said Georgian authorities have insisted that the repatriation process should be voluntary out of fear that Meskhetians living near Krasnodar will be expelled by Russia.
Burduli also said another major concern of the government is to ensure that the return of the former deportees does not trigger social unrest.
"We have to take into account that Georgia's social and economic situation is very, very bad. I do not know of any country in the world that, under similar circumstances, could possibly settle this issue in a couple of days, or even in a year. The process should therefore be progressive, perhaps regulated by quotas. Repatriation is one thing. But another thing -- to me and to a great number of [Meskhetians], this is very important -- is that these people should integrate into the society, feel comfortable in it, and become fully fledged citizens after a certain period of time. We should do everything to ensure they do not feel disappointed, and not decide that Georgia isn't the 'paradise' they've been promised and then leave Georgia after their return."
Burduli and government officials say that experts from the Council of Europe have already given their go-ahead to the proposed repatriation bill and that the draft has been sent to the Justice Ministry to be reworked. But Council of Europe spokesman Dmitri Marchenkov told RFE/RL that council experts were still examining the draft.
"There has been no final verdict on this draft and [our] experts are still working on it. Therefore, it would be premature to draw any conclusion."
The draft repatriation bill has triggered controversy among Meskhetian leaders and human rights groups. One of its provisions says that those applying for repatriation must produce documents attesting to their current citizenship. But human rights group argue that Meskhetian refugees living in Russia's Krasnodar territory will be unable to satisfy this demand because they are officially considered as stateless.
Another controversial point relates to documents that applicants should file to prove that they, or their parents, were deported from Meskhetia in 1944.
Former repatriation service head Mamulia, who drafted another repatriation bill that was rejected by the government, says the need to produce documentary evidence of deportation makes the draft law "discriminatory." Unlike Burduli, Mamulia says there are no existing documents certifying repatriation applicants are either former deportees or descendants of former deportees.
"These documents [proving that people were deported] have never existed. When these people were deported, nobody issued them with any such documents. Even if we admit that some kind of lists were kept [by the Soviet authorities], a long time has passed and two generations of Meskhetians have been born since the deportation. How could [a young Meskhetian] possibly produce documents proving that his grandfather -- who never had such documents -- was deported?"
Mamulia, together with his entire staff, resigned a few weeks ago to protest the approval of the draft repatriation bill by the government. He believes that Georgian authorities should have chosen instead a simplified procedure based on witness accounts:
"If a person cannot produce these [deportation documents], those who have already returned to Georgia could testify that this person is a descendant of a deported Meskhetian or that they have knew this person in exile. Such testimonies are legally valid. This procedure was included in our own draft bill and is similar to the one that exists under Georgia's law on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression."
Mamulia says he fears that, under the proposed repatriation law, returnees will be treated arbitrarily by bureaucrats, especially when applying for citizenship. He says Meskhetians should automatically be granted citizenship when they return to Georgia.
Meskhetians complain about another of the draft bill's provisions, which states that the government will decide where the returnees should live. Many insist that they should be allowed to return to Meskhetia. This is particularly true of older people who still have vivid memories of the deportation.
Meskhetian youth leader Iso Molidze says that he will feel comfortable anywhere in Georgia. But he says his parents, who currently live in Russia's southern Rostov-on-Don region, feel differently:
"Initially, my parents wanted to return to the village [they were deported from]. But they went there once and saw that everything had been destroyed. Now my father wants to buy a home in [Meskhetia's largest town,] Akhaltsikhe. He's 65 [years old] now. He was seven when he was deported. If he manages to get back to his homeland, he will feel like seven again."
The government strongly opposes the idea of resettling Meskhetians in their native region lest their arrival create tensions with the local population.
Some 100,000 ethnic Armenians were sent to Meskhetia in the early 19th century after Georgia was annexed to Russia. According to Meskhetian leader Klara Baratashvili, the Russians wanted to set up a Christian "cordon sanitaire" along the border with the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
After the Meskhetians were deported in 1944, the Soviet regime forced tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians to settle near the Turkish border. They took over the homes left behind by the exiled Meskhetians.
Today, the region is populated mostly by Christians. About half of the population of Akhaltsikhe is made up of ethnic Armenians. In Akhalkalaki, the main city of the southern Javakhetia region, Armenians make up as much as 90 percent of the population.
Russia still maintains one military base in the southern autonomous republic of Ajaria and another one in Akhalkalaki. Georgia suspects Moscow may be tempted to spark unrest among ethnic Armenians living along the Turkish border to destabilize the country. That concern makes the Meskhetian question a major security issue for Tbilisi.
Lawyer Burduli says Meskhetians will be free to settle in any part of the country once they are recognized as Georgian citizens. But government officials sound far less sure of that. Rusudan Berizde is the deputy secretary of Georgia's Security Council. Asked whether Meskhetians will be eventually allowed to return to their native region, she said:
"It will all depend on the settlement capacities [of the region]. For this, we would need land. Other people have been living in Meskhetia for decades now. Unlike Russia or the United States, Georgia is a country that has very little land. [Meskhetians] will be resettled according to our capacities and only in those regions where they will be able to cultivate the land."
Georgian officials say that they are committed to settle the Meskhetian question once and for all. But at the same time they say the 12-year framework set by the Council of Europe in 1999 is not realistic.
Opponents of the draft repatriation bill say the country's leadership is not interested in settling the issue. They argue that the government only half-heartedly yielded to international pressure and that its repatriation bill could turn into a dead letter.
Even lawyer Burduli, who drafted the repatriation bill on behalf of the Refugees Ministry, says he doubts that political leaders are determined enough to resolve the Meskhetian issue, which he describes as "very unpopular."
As for Mamulia, who resigned his post over the issue, he says: "Everything is being done so that Meskhetians will either decide not to come back or, if they do return, that they voluntarily leave after a while."
მუსლიმი მესხები, მათი საქართველოში რეპატრიაციის საკითხი
