Meskhetian refugees in Azerbaijan hope to return to Georgia
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Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 10:37:44 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Meskhetian refugees in Azerbaijan hope to return to Georgia
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Felix Corley <[email protected]>
Meskhetian refugees in Azerbaijan hope to return to Georgia
Meskhetian Turk refugees in Azerbaijan hope to return to homeland in
Georgia
Azerbaijani TV station ANS
23 May 2001
BAKU
[Presenter Sevda Hasanova] Some 50,000 Meskhetian Turks who left
Central Asia exactly 12 years ago found refuge in Azerbaijan. Azay
Karimov reports:
[Correspondent] The tragedy of the Meskhetian Turks, who are an
ancient branch of the Turkic-speaking people, began in 1944 when
97,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia on Joseph
Stalin's orders, and 45 years after deportation they were subjected to
ruthless violence in Uzbekistan. On 23 May 1989 a savage crowd
patronized by the former USSR special services, carrying slogans
Uzbekistan is for Uzbeks, committed gross crimes against their
Turkic-speaking compatriots.
[Chairman of Vatan society, Xalid Dastanov, voice] They clarified
later whether this crime had been plotted at state level or not. The
Uzbekistan Interior Ministry had known about this plot and they
carried out the instructions of those organizations [of the former
USSR]. This is nothing new, this was a prepared and planned operation.
[Correspondent] Mr Dastanov believes that there are 100 missing
compatriots following the events in [the] Fergana [valley in eastern
Uzbekistan] when 400 people were brutally killed. About 100,000
Meskhetian Turks, expelled from Uzbekistan, have been granted refugee
status in Azerbaijan. Their treatment is illustrated by the fact that
unlike Karabakh refugees, no Meskhetian Turks are living in tents.
[Presenter] The Meskhetian Turks who arrived in Azerbaijan after the
ethnic conflict have mostly settled in Saatli District [central
Azerbaijan]. Our regional correspondent reports:
[Aladdin Azimov] At present there are more than 3,800 Fergana refugees
in Saatli District. Fergana refugee Gulsad Lamanova says that her
compatriots are longing for their homeland.
[Lamanova] I lost my mother a year ago, she always longed for the
homeland. We were born and grew up in Uzbekistan, but we believe that
Georgia is our only homeland.
[Aladdin Azimov] Gulsad Lamanova added that representatives of the
Fergana refugees went to Georgia where they saw other people living on
their land.
[Lamanova] People from other villages were brought forcefully, they
are Armenians and others. Until three years ago they did not been bury
their dead in our cemeteries. But they stopped believing in our return
to our motherland three years ago and began to bury their dead there.
The Council of Europe has advised Georgia to resettle the Meskhetian
Turks in their historical homeland. The Fergana refugees, as well as
30,000 Meskhetian Turks who moved to Saatli District in 1958-59, said
they were happy with their treatment by the Azerbaijani people but
that they were awaiting the day when their longing for their homeland
would end.
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