MINELRES: RFE/RL: Georgian President Discusses Meskhetians with Krasnodar Governor

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Original sender: Emil Adelkhanov <emil-ade@cipdd.org>


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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 45, Part I, 10 March 2003

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ... DISCUSSES MESKHETIANS WITH KRASNODAR GOVERNOR.
While in Sochi, President Shevardnadze held talks on 7 March with
Krasnodar Krai Governor Aleksandr Tkachev, Caucasus Press reported.
Tkachev reportedly asked Shevardnadze to take "concrete and decisive
steps" to expedite the emigration to Georgia as soon as possible of
those Meskhetians currently living in Krasnodar who wish to settle in
Georgia. Georgia pledged when it joined the Council of Europe to allow
the Meskhetians, descendants of thousands who were deported on Stalin's
orders to Central Asia in 1944, to return to their ancestral villages in
southern Georgia but has not made good on that pledge, partly due to
financial problems and partly because of objections from local
residents. Meskhetians in Krasnodar are regarded with mistrust and have
been the target of repeated pogroms in recent years. LF