16 Facts About Meskhetian Turks

Meskhetian Turks, referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, are an ethnic subgroup of Turks formerly inhabiting the Meskheti region of Georgia, along the border with Turkey.

Today, the Meskhetian Turks are widely dispersed throughout the former Soviet Union due to forced deportations during World War II.

In 1944, the Meskhetian Turks were accused of smuggling, banditry and espionage in collaboration with their kin across the Turkish border.

Approximately 115,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia and subsequently only a few hundred have been able to return to Georgia as Georgia does not allow repatriation.

Pro-Georgian historiography has traditionally argued that the Meskhetian Turks, who speak the Kars dialect of the Turkish language and belong to the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, are simply Turkified Meskhetians converted to Islam in the period between the sixteenth century and 1829, when the region of Samtskhe–Javakheti was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

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The reason for the deportation of the Meskhetian Turks was because in 1944 the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey.

In 1989, riots broke out between the Meskhetian Turks who had settled in Uzbekistan and the native Uzbeks.

Hundreds of Meskhetian Turks were killed or injured, nearly 1,000 properties were destroyed and thousands of Meskhetian Turks fled into exile.

Meskhetian Turks described Meskhetian Turks from Khojaly who were captured by Armenian militants and she was hit by an Armenian soldier who took her for one of the captives when she was helping a Meskhetian Turk woman falling behind the crowd with four children, one of which wounded, and the other one newly born.

Around 2,000 Meskhetian Turks have been forced to flee from their homes in Ukraine since May 2014 amid fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The Krasnodar Meskhetian Turks have suffered significant human rights violations, including the deprivation of their citizenship.

However, in Georgia, racism against Meskheti Meskhetian Turks is still prevalent due to differences in beliefs and ethnic tensions.

Meskhetian Turks speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, which hails from the regions of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin.

The Turkish Meskhetian dialect has borrowed from other languages which the Meskhetian Turks have been in contact with during the Russian and Soviet rule.

Meskhetian Turks' weddings consist of a traditional proposal from the groom's parents and if the bride's parents accept the proposal, an engagement party, or Nisan, is done.

Religious male circumcision Ceremony of the Ahiska Meskhetian Turks, is hold in a big way of Dance, Music, Guests, rezitation of the Koran and a special Kirve.