Ahiska Turks convene İstanbul conference to highlight their problems (14 April 201; Today's Zaman)

The Ahiska Turks, who were forced to emigrate from Georgia between 1944, came together at a conference organized by the Ahiska Students Alumni Association (AHİMED) on Saturday to discuss challenges they face.

Ahiska Turks were forced to leave their homes in the Georgian city of Meskheti in 1944 and have since been unable to return.
In the opening speech of the conference, AHİMED General Coordinator Rüstem Alioğlu said they organized the conference to provide an academic forum to discuss the problems that Ahiska Turks face. Numerous academics and intellectuals participated in the conference along with hundreds of Ahiska Turks.
Also giving a speech during the conference, Habibullah Mürsel, president of the All Ahiska Turks Social Economic Cooperation and Solidarity Association (TASİYAD), said the problems of the Ahiska can only be solved with the contributions of Ahiska scholars, adding that he believes the Ahiska Turks will be able to accomplish their goal of returning to their homeland in the near future with the help of qualified Ahiska intellectuals.
Minera Aliyeva, a professor at Uludağ University, pointed to the fact that over the years, the Ahiska Turks have not been able to preserve their own culture.
An international relations specialist attending the conference, Elşan İzzetgül, said Georgia is at fault, adding that most of the problems can be resolved if Georgia takes the required legal steps to enable Ahiska Turks to return to their homeland. She stated that the rights of Ahiska Turks should be restored, noting that Turkey should use its relationship with Georgia to add some pressure.
The Ahiska Turks, also known as Meskhetian Turks, found themselves in Georgia when the border between Turkey and the Soviet Union was drawn under the Moscow Agreement of March 16, 1921. Concerned by the possible strategic threat posed by the rapprochement between Turkey and the Ahiska Turks, the Russian government deported between 120,000 and 140,000 people to Central Asia on the night of Nov. 15, 1944, leading to the current Ahiska Turk question. Currently, 500,000 Ahiska Turks who live in the former Soviet republics, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation, are unable to return to their land of origin in Georgia; they are also denied citizenship in their current countries of residence. Ahiska Turks are the only people denied a return to their homeland in the former Soviet Union.

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