RFE/RL Caucasus Report Vol. 4, No. 13: Meskhetians
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Subject: RFE/RL Caucasus Report Vol. 4, No. 13: Meskhetians
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RFE/RL Caucasus Report Vol. 4, No. 13: Meskhetians
RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL CAUCASUS REPORT
Vol. 4, No. 13, 30 March 2001
A Weekly Review of Political Developments in the North Caucasus and
Transcaucasia from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
...................
WILL MOSCOW TRY TO USE THE MESKHETIANS AGAINST GEORGIA?
Addressing the Georgian parliament on 27 March, deputy speaker Eldar
Shengelaia said that legislation - drafted by the Association of Young
Lawyers to create a legal framework for the repatriation of the
Meskhetians to Georgia and approved by the Council of Europe - will be
presented to the Georgian legislature in August. When Georgia was
accepted into membership of the Council of Europe two years ago, it
was on condition that measures be taken to expedite the repatriation
over a 10-year period of those Meskhetians who wished to make Georgia
their permanent home. The Georgian leadership argued at that time that
it did not have the financial means to allow thousands of Meskhetians
to return immediately to their native villages (see "RFE/RL Caucasus
Report," Vol. 3, No. 32, 11 August 2000).
The Meskhetians, whose ethnic origins are disputed, were deported to
Central Asia by Joseph Stalin in November 1944 from their homes in the
southern Georgian region of Meskhet-Djavakheti. Despite decades of
intensive lobbying, only a few hundred have been permitted to return
to Georgia; some who consider themselves ethnic Turks have either
settled in Azerbaijan or emigrated to Turkey. But those who now wish
to return to Georgia include both some who are convinced of their
Georgian ethnicity and others who consider themselves Turks. Indeed, a
small number of repatriated Meskhetians who consider themselves Turks
"dream of joining Akhaltsikhe to Turkey," according to Anzor
Tamarashvili, Georgian parliament deputy for that district.
That possibility of an influx of pro-Turkish Meskhetians into southern
Georgia has generated concern not only among the present predominantly
Armenian population of Djavakheti, but also in Yerevan. Visiting the
Armenian capital on 28 March, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli
Menagharishvili personally reassured Armenian Premier Andranik
Markarian that the repatriation of the Meskhetians will not adversely
affect Djavakheti's ethnic-Armenian population.
If the repatriation proceeds gradually, and if, as the Georgian
government has proposed, the Meskhetians can be persuaded to settle in
other regions of Georgia rather than converge on their native
villages, the grounds for friction should remain small. But there are
indications that some in Russia may have seized upon the Meskhetians
as a means of exerting pressure on Tbilisi. Glasnost-North Caucasus on
22 March quoted Aleksandr Blokhin, Russia's Minister for Nationalities
and Migration Policy, as saying that the estimated 13,000 Meskhetians
currently resident in Krasnodar Krai will be given residence permits
valid for one year, during which they must decide where they wish to
live permanently. The krai's legislature has passed a bill which
restricts the right to buy property in the Krai to persons who are
registered as permanent residents.
Regardless of its intentions vis-a-vis Georgia, Moscow has at least
two compelling reasons to try to reduce the Meskhetian presence in the
North Caucasus. First, according to a recent article in "Patriot,"
Meskhetians together with emigrants from Armenia have acquired a
virtual monopoly of market- and street-trading in many towns in the
region. That monopoly has exacerbated local enmity towards them. And
second, the Meskhetians have one of the highest birthrates in South
Russia: in the Abinsk and Krym raions of Krasnodar Krai, 50 percent of
children born are Meskhetian. (Liz Fuller)
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Copyright (c) 2001. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
The "RFE/RL Caucasus Report" is prepared by Liz Fuller
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