Minority Monitor: Would historical justice for Meskhetian Turks ever be restored?

Forcefully deported from their homeland, today’s Georgia, to Central Asia in 1944 and fleeing from Uzbekistan after the 1989 outbreak of violence in the Ferghana Valley, the minority of the Meskhetian Turks is currently living dispersed in nine different countries: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the United States. In 1999, when Georgia became a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), it made a commitment to restore the historical injustice and to return the forcibly evicted Meskhetian Turks to their homeland. However, this commitment has not been fulfilled. By 2011 only about 2000 members of the community succeeded to relocate back to Georgia, while hundreds of thousands are still struggling to get back to their country of origin and seeking support from international institutions, governments, and non-governmental organisations to restore their rights.

Minority Monitor’s new article introduces the case of the Meskhetian Turks and puts forward some issues seen as problematic by the members of the minority. It has been prepared based on materials provided by the Interregional Public Organization of Meskhetian Turks "Vatan" and additional sources.

Read the Minority Monitor article here!