Meskhetian Turks urge Georgian leadership to accelerate their repatriation

The repatriation process of Meskhetian Turks to Georgia should be accelerated; it is necessary to develop a step by step plan and discuss a possibility of granting dual citizenship to immigrants, said participants of the conference in Tbilisi. Along with that, according to Ucha Nanuashvili, the Ombudsman (People's Defender) of Georgia, work should be conducted with local residents, who fear separatist sentiment on the part of Meskhetian Turks.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that during the World War II a number of nationals, namely, Meskhetian Turks (Akhiska Turks), Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingushes, Balkars and Crimean Tatars were deported. According to the International Society "Memorial", about 100,000 Meskhetian Turks and other Caucasian nationals were exposed to deportation.

The conference dedicated to the 70th anniversary of deportation of Meskhetian Turks was held on November 28 to discuss the strategy put forward by the Government of Georgia.

The position of the government assumes drafting specific mechanisms for the repatriation of Meskhetian Turks, said Ucha Nanuashvili. According to the Ombudsman, Georgia is still preserving "the rejection of Meskhetian Turks by residents of the regions from where they had been evicted."

Local residents fear that Meskhetian Turks "will provoke a wave of separatism with the aim to attach the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region to Turkey," remarked Nanuashvili.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.