04.02.2005 - Source: Council of Europe - Parliamentary Assembly

Report on situation of Meskhetian population (areas of concern, prospects for future) ("The situation of deported Meskhetian population [Doc. 10451]") [#33352],  [ID 11372]

Document(s): Open document

08.2004 - Source: European Centre for Minority Issues

Report focused on the demographic and socio-political situation of Meskhetian Turks in countries of the former Soviet Union ("Between integration and resettlement: The Meskhetian Turks (by Oskari Pentikäinen and Tom Trier)") [#27861],  [ID 16954]

"An estimated 50-70,000 Meskhetian Turks reside in Russia, of whom 40-60,000 are assumed to be forced migrants from Uzbekistan. 17,000 Meskhetian Turks were evacuated from Ferghana Valley to Central Russia; however, due to the unfamiliar climate and overall difficult conditions 6-7,000 Meskhetian Turks have left Russian cities such as Oryol, Tver and Smolensk, mostly to other regions of Russian and Azerbaijan. Approximately 10,000 Meskhetians, who already livedin the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic before 1989, possessedpropiskas. For those Meskhetian Turks who have resettled to Russia fromUzbekistan since 1989 no long-term integration programs have beenimplemented.31 At present, Krasnodar Krai remains the only region whereMeskhetian Turks have been widely denied propiska and citizenship. Meskhetian Turks live almost exclusively in the rural areas of the Russian Federation and communities of more than 100 households are rare."

Document(s): Open document

06.05.2004 - Source: Caucasian Knot

Meskhetian Turks from Krasnodar Region who were granted refugee status expected to be able to leave for the United States in August ("First Meskhetian Turks get refugee status in US") [#22004],  [ID 11375]

"The group of 84 Meskhetian Turks visited Moscow in late April to be interviewed to get refugee status in the United States. Over 5 thousand people have already submitted their applications for participation in the resettlement program carried out by the US Department of State, reported the Novorossiysk City Committee on Human Rights. Only Meskhetian Turks subjected to discrimination on the part of the Krasnodar regional authorities will move."

Document(s): Open document

1989 - Source: NUPI - Centre for Russian Studies

Background information on Meskhetian Turks ("Ethnic Groups") [ID 11381]

"The Meskhetian Turks are a contemporary example of ethnogenesis, as there was no such group in the Soviet Union as late as the 1950s. This group gradually emerged as a result of some of Stalin's deportations. Late in 1944, Stalin charged several different ethnic groups from the Meskhi region of Georgia and Armenia of collaborating with the Nazi Germans, and between 100.000 and 150.000 of them were deported to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The largest of these ethnic groups was a group of Sunni Muslim Turks. Other groups included the Karapapakhs (Ali Illahi Muslim), the Khemsils (Sunni Muslim), two groups of Kurds (one Sunni, one Ali Illahi Muslim) and small numbers of azeri-speaking Turkmen, and some Abkhaz and Adjars. In the after-war years, these groups all found themselves living in poverty in Central Asia. Their suffering made them more anti-Russian, more religious, and brought the different groups closer together. Because they all spoke Turkish languages and were all Muslims, and they were soon able to overcome their dialect-like language-differences and the differences between Sunni and Ali Illahi Muslims. And thus, a new ethnic group of Meskhetian Turks began to emerge. The Meskhetian Turks are still confined to Central Asia, and they have become militantly Muslim and increasingly nationalistic in perspective. Gorbachovs Glasnost brought an opportunity for some of them to return to Meskhetia, but the permission was not official, and their land was now inhabited by other Caucasian groups. Since 1990, the Meskhetian Turks have also increasingly been targets of ethnic violence and discrimination in Central Asia. A USSR commission was established to try to solve the Meskhetian problem. They did not find a way for the Meskhetian Turks to return to meskhetia, but some were offered the opportunity to settle in Central Russia (Tver, Smolensk, Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod and Voronezh oblast), and in Krasnodar and Stavropol kray. An increasing number of Meskhetian Turks want to emigrate to Turkey."

Document(s): Ethnic Groups