| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1944 deportee population only: est. 400,000 in 1990[1] (excludes pre-1944muhacirs in Turkey) current deportee population only: 500,000–600,000[2][3][4][5][6] (excludes descendants of pre-1944 Meskhetian Turks in Turkey) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Georgia | 1,500[7][8] |
 Turkey | 100,000–1,500,000 (latter including 19th- and 20th-centurymuhacir descendants)[9][10] |
 Kazakhstan | 150,000–250,000[7][8][9] |
 Azerbaijan | 90,000–130,000[7][8] |
 Russia | 70,000–100,000[8][7][9] |
 Kyrgyzstan | 42,000–55,000[7][8][9] |
 Uzbekistan | 15,000–38,000[11][7][9] |
 Ukraine | 8,000–15,000[7][11][9] |
 United States | 9,000–16,000[11][7] |
 Northern Cyprus | 180[7] |
| Languages | |
| Meskhetian Turkish dialect Azerbaijani · Russian · Georgian · Kazakh · Kyrgyz | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlySunni Islam, minorityShia Islam[12][13] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Georgians (especiallyMeskhetians), otherTurks,Karapapakhs,Tsalka Urums | |
Meskhetian Turks, also referred to asTurkish Meskhetians,[14][15][16]Ahiska Turks, andTurkish Ahiskans,[17] (Turkish:Ahıska Türkleri;[18][19]Georgian:მესხეთის თურქებიMeskhetis turk'ebi) are a subgroup of ethnicTurkish people historically inhabiting theMeskheti region ofGeorgia, along the border withTurkey. The Turkish presence in Meskheti began with theOttoman military expedition of 1578,[20] althoughTurkic tribes had settled in the region as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[20]
Today, the Meskhetian Turks are widely dispersed throughout theformer Soviet Union (as well as in Turkey and the United States) due toforced deportations during World War II. At the time, theSoviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey, andJoseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Turkish population in Meskheti deemed likely to be hostile to Soviet government intentions.[21] In 1944, the Meskhetian Turks were accused of smuggling, banditry and espionage in collaboration with their kin across the Turkish border. Expelled by Joseph Stalin from Georgia in 1944, they faced discrimination and human-rights abuses before and after deportation.[22] 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. Those who migrated to Ukraine in 1990 settled inshanty-towns inhabited by seasonal workers.[22]
Out of the tested DNA samples of Meskhetian Turks, the most commonY-chromosomal haplogroup among them isHaplogroup J, in the second place is the Y-chromosomalhaplogroup G.[23]
Most Meskhetian Turks identify themselves as having descended fromOttoman settlers.[24] Pro-Georgian historiography has traditionally argued that the Meskhetian Turks, who speak theKars dialect of theTurkish language and belong to theHanafi school ofSunni Islam, are simplyTurkifiedMeskhetians (an ethnographic subgroup ofGeorgians) converted to Islam in the period between the sixteenth century and 1829, when the region ofSamtskhe–Javakheti (HistoricalMeskheti) was under the rule of theOttoman Empire, theory of the Georgian historians is supported by the fact Meskhetian Turks genetically are closely related toGeorgians.[25][26] However, the Russian anthropologist and historian ProfessorAnatoly Michailovich Khazanov has argued against the pro-Georgian narrative and has said that:
it is quite possible that the adherents of this [pro-Georgian] view oversimplified the ethnic history of the group, particularly if one compares it with another Muslim Georgian group, theAdzhar, who in spite of their conversion to Islam have retained, not only theGeorgian language, but to some extent also the Georgian traditional culture and self-identification. Contrary to this, the traditional culture of Meskhetian Turks, though it contained some Georgian elements, was similar to the Turkish one.[25]
However, when making this comparison, Michailovich ignores the period during which the Adjara and Mesheti regions were under Turkish rule. Turkish-Armenian writerNişanyan explains the loss of the Georgian language by the Meskhetians, although the Adjarians preserved the Georgian language, as follows:
The people of the city of Batumi and the autonomous region of Adjara (and the Borcka-Hopa side of Artvin and the Meydancık valley of Şavşat) are Muslim Georgians, speaking the Adjara dialect. They were subject to Georgia until the 1810s and lived under direct or indirect Christian rule. The people of Ahıska (and Şavşat-Yusufeli, Posof) have lived under Islamic rule for 450 years. They have long spoken Turkish, perhaps intertwined with other elements of Ottoman Islam.[27]
The DNA evidence has corroborated the Georgian thesis as it shows that Meskhetian Turks are genetically very close to Georgians.[28]
Anthropologist Kathryn Tomlinson has pointed out that in Soviet documents about the 1944 deportations of the Meskhetian Turks, the community were referred to simply as "Turks" because of their faith Islam, not only them but also every Muslim of Georgia was referred as Turks and that it was after their second deportation fromUzbekistan that the term "Meskhetian Turks" was invented.[29] According to Ronald Wixman, the term "Meskhetian" only came into use in the late 1950s.[30] Indeed, the majority of the Meskhetian Turks call themselves simply as "Turks" or "Ahiskan Turks" (Turkish:Ahıska Türkleri) referring to the region, meaning "Turks of Ahiska Region". The Meskhetians claim sometimes that the medievalCumans-Kipchaks of Georgia (Kipchaks in Georgia) may have been one of their possible ancestors.[31] According to historians, it is less likely because part of the Kipchaks left Georgia during theinvasion of Mongols, while others joinedMongols.
By thePeace of Amasya (1555),Meskheti was divided into two, with theSafavids keeping the eastern part and theOttomans gaining the western part.[32] In 1578, the Ottomansattacked theSafavid possessions in Georgia, which initiated theOttoman–Safavid War of 1578–1590, and by 1582 the Ottomans were in possession of the eastern (Safavid) part of Meskheti.[33] The Safavids regained control over the eastern part of Meskheti in the early 17th century.[33] However, by theTreaty of Zuhab (1639), all of Meskheti fell under Ottoman control, and it brought an end to Iranian attempts to retake the region.[34][33]
On 15 November 1944, the thenGeneral Secretary of theCPSU,Joseph Stalin, ordered the deportation of over 115,000 Meskhetian Turks from their homeland,[35] who were secretly driven from their homes and herded onto rail cars.[36] As many as 30,000 to 50,000 deportees died of hunger, thirst and cold and as a direct result of the deportations and the deprivations suffered in exile.[37][36] The Soviet guards dumped the Meskhetian Turks at rail sidings across a vast region, often without food, water, or shelter.
According to the1989 Soviet Census, 106,000 Meskhetian Turks lived in Uzbekistan, 50,000 inKazakhstan, and 21,000 inKyrgyzstan.[35] As opposed to the other nationalities who had been deported duringWorld War II, no reason was given for the deportation of the Meskhetian Turks, which remained secret until 1968.[21] It was only in 1968 that the Soviet government finally recognised that the Meskhetian Turks had been deported. The reason for the deportation of the Meskhetian Turks was because in 1944 the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign againstTurkey.[21] In June 1945Vyacheslav Molotov, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented a demand to the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow for the surrender of three Anatolia provinces (Kars,Ardahan andArtvin).[21] As Moscow was also preparing to support Armenian claims to several other Anatolian provinces, war against Turkey seemed possible, and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Georgian-Turkish border where the Meskhetian Turks were settled and who were likely to be hostile to such Soviet intentions.[21]
Unlike the other deported Muslim groups, the Meskhetians have not been rehabilitated nor permitted to return to their homeland. In April 1970, the leaders of the Turkish Meskhetian national movement applied to the Turkish Embassy in Moscow for permission to emigrate to Turkey as Turkish citizens if the Soviet government persisted its refusal to allow them to resettle in Meskheti. However, the response of the Soviet government was to arrest the Meskhetian leaders.[38]
In 1989, riots broke out between the Meskhetian Turks who had settled inUzbekistan and the nativeUzbeks.[35] Nationalist resentments against the Meskhetians who had competed with Uzbeks for resources in the overpopulatedFergana Valley boiled over. Hundreds of Meskhetian Turks were killed or injured, nearly 1,000 properties were destroyed and thousands of Meskhetian Turks fled into exile.[35] The majority of Meskhetian Turks, about 70,000, went toAzerbaijan, whilst the remainder went to various regions of Russia (especiallyKrasnodar Krai),Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan[35][39] andUkraine.
Meskhetian Turk refugees who had been persecuted inCentral Asia were forcibly relocated toAzerbaijan where they settled inKhojaly in Nagorno Karabakh before being subsequently massacred along withAzerbaijanis in 1992.[40] According to Thomas de Waal, Khojaly had been the focus of a large resettlement program by the Azerbaijan government in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[41]
Russian journalistVictoria Ivleva took photos of the town streets strewn with dead bodies of its inhabitants, including women and children.[42] She described Meskhetian Turks from Khojaly who were captured byArmenian militants. 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 was wounded, and the other one newly born.[43]
Around 2,000 Meskhetian Turks have been forced to flee from their homes inUkraine since May 2014 amid fighting betweengovernment forces and pro-Russian separatists. Turkish Meskhetian community representative in the eastern city of Donetsk, Nebican Basatov, said that those who have fled have sought refuge inRussia,Azerbaijan,Turkey and different parts of Ukraine.[22] Over 300 Meskhetian Turks from the Turkish-speaking minority in eastern Ukraine have arrived in eastern Turkey's Erzincan province where they will live under the country's recently adopted asylum measures.[44]
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According to the1989 Soviet Census, there were 207,502 Turks living in the Soviet Union.[2] However, Soviet authorities recorded many Meskhetian Turks as belonging to other nationalities such as "Azeri", "Kazakh", "Kyrgyz", and "Uzbek".[2] Hence, official censuses do not necessarily show a true reflection of the real population of the Meskhetian Turks; for example, according to the 2009 Azerbaijani census, there were 38,000 Turks living in the country; however, no distinction is made in the census between Meskhetian Turks and Turks from Turkey who have become Azerbaijani citizens, as both groups are classified in the official census as "Turks" or "Azerbaijani".[45] According to theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report published in 1999, that 100,000 Meskhetian Turks lived in Azerbaijan and the defunct Baku Institute of Peace and Democracy stated, in 2001, that between 90,000 and 110,000 Meskhetian Turks lived in Azerbaijan,[46][47] similarly, academic estimates have also suggested that the Turkish Meskhetian community of Azerbaijan numbers 90,000 to 110,000.[46]
More recently, some Meskhetian Turks in Russia, especially those inKrasnodar, have faced hostility from the local population. The Krasnodar Meskhetian Turks have suffered significant human rights violations, including the deprivation of their citizenship. They are deprived of civil, political and social rights and are prohibited from owning property and employment.[48] Thus, since 2004, many Turks have left theKrasnodar region for theUnited States as refugees. A large number of them, comprising nearly 1300 individuals, is inDayton, Ohio. They are still barred from full repatriation to Georgia.[49] Apart from that, in Georgia, racism against Meskheti Turks is still prevalent due to differences in beliefs and ethnic tensions.[50]
Most Meskhetian Turks are Sunni Muslims and a minority are Shiite Muslims.[12][13]
| Meskhetian Turkish | |
|---|---|
| Ahiska | |
| Region | formerSoviet Union,Turkey |
| Ethnicity | Meskhetian Turks |
Native speakers | c. 4,500[51] |
| Cyrillic script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
The Meskhetian Turks speak anEastern Anatolian dialect ofTurkish, which hails from the regions ofKars,Ardahan, andArtvin.[52] The Turkish Meskhetian dialect has also borrowed from other languages (includingAzerbaijani,Georgian,Kazakh,Kyrgyz,Russian, andUzbek) which the Meskhetian Turks have been in contact with during theRussian andSoviet rule.[53] It is commonly written using theCyrillic script.[54][55]
Meskhetian Turks'weddings consist of a traditional proposal from the groom's parents and if the bride's parents accept the proposal, anengagement party, orNişan, is done. Everyone at theNişan is given a ceremonial sweet drink, calledSharbat. The actual wedding lasts for two days. On the first day the bride leaves her house and on the second day is when the marriage happens. Before the bride enters her husband's house she uses the heel on her shoe to break two plates with her foot and applies honey on the doorway. This tradition serves the purpose of wishing happiness upon the new bride and groom in their marriage. At the end of the wedding, a dance ensues with the men and women dancing separately. Finally, the newlyweds have their last dance which is called the ‘Waltz’ and that completes the wedding.[56]
Thereligious male circumcision ceremony of the Ahiska Turks, is hold in a big way of dance, music, guests, recitation of the Koran and a specialKirve (Sandek).[57]
 | This article's list of residentsmay not follow Wikipedia'sverifiability policy. Pleaseimprove this article by removing names that do not have independentreliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this articleand are residents, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriatecitations.(September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The following is list of people of Turkish Meshetian origin:
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)O an çok gururlandım Ahıskalı olduğum için.
(Gülerek) Herkes etnik kökenine bakıyor. Vallahi ben çok safkan bir Türküm. Ahıska Türkleri derler bize Kars'ta. Ve, bizim sülalemizden birilerinin Ermeni çeteleri tarafından öldürülmüş olabileceği ihtimali de oldukça kuvvetli. Ama bu tür şeyler benim için hiç önemli değil. Ben sonuçta bir akademisyenim ve bilim adamı olarak konuyu araştırıyorum.
Ahıska Türkü oyuncular Celal Al ve Ladibek Fatih Osmanlı, Kazakistan'dan gelen Ahıskalı Muhammed Mustafayev, Mevlüt Karimov ve DATÜB Gençlik Kolları Yönetim Kurulu Üyesi İskender Ziyaoğlu ile bir araya geldi.
Canımdan çok sevdiğim, hiçbir zaman unutamadığım rahmetli babam Osman Server Atabek, 20 Ağustos 1886'da Ahıska'da dünyaya gelmiştir.
Dünya Grekoromen Güreş Şampiyonası'nda 80 kiloda mücadele eden milli sporcu ahıska Türkü Aslan Atem, finalde Rus güreşçi Ramazan Abacharaev'e 3-1 yenilerek dünya 2'incisi olarak gümüş madalya kazandı.
milyarderi Kazak kökenli işadamı Tevfik Arif'in ailesi Ahıska Türklerinden. Tevfik Arif,...
Tevfik Arif Bey Ahıska Türkü. Doğma büyüme Kazakistanlı. ABD'de yaşıyor.
Ailemiz Posof'a 1921 yılında gelmiş. Öyle anlaşılıyor ki, 16 Mart 1921 tarihinde imzalanan Moskova Antlaşması'yla Ahıska'nın ötede kalması kesinleşince, ailemiz Türkiye'ye göç etmiş ve Posof'a yerleşmiş.
Ahıska Türklerinin milli kahramanı Şehit İskender Aznaurov'un Moskova'da yaşayan 84 yaşındaki annesi Kamile Mustafayeva, Dünya Ahıska Türkleri Birliği'nin (DATÜB) girişimleri ile Türkiye'ye getirildi.
Onlardan biri de Azerbaycan' Milli Kahramanı Ahıskalı Türk İskender Aznaurov'dur (Topçu İskender)
Babanov'un annesinin Kırgız olmamasını zaman zaman siyasi malzeme olarak kullanıyor. Babanov da durumu "Rahmetli annem, İkinci Dünya Savaşı döneminde Gürcistan'ın Batum şehrinden Kırgızistan'a sürüldü. Uzun tren yolculuğu sırasında anne ve babasını kaybeden küçük kıza bir Kırgız ailesi sahip çıktı. Ben Kırgız ailesinde büyüdüm. Annem Ahıska Türkü'dür babam da Kırgız" sözleriyle açıklıyor.
Efendiyev, Adil (1907-1973). Azerbaijani poet, translator, and intellectual Efendiyev was born into a family of Ahiska Turkish teachers.
Bunlar; Ömer Faik Nemanzade, Osman Server Atabek, Hafız Efendi, Şefika Hanım Efendi Zade, Prof. Cerrah Fuat Efendiyev, Adil Efendiyev, Ahmet Bey Pepinov, Enver Odabaşev (Odabaş), Yusuf Serverov, (Serveroğlu), Cevat Koçiyev, Saadat Gülahmedova ve saymakla sonu gelmeyen nice şahıslarımız olmuştur.
Benim annem güzel mantı yapar. Ahıska Türklerinden bizim sülale. Bizim oraların mantısına hingel denir.
Roman değilim, olsam gururla söylerdim. Annem Ahıska Türkleri'nden, babam ise Arnavut...
Bizim Ahıska'mızın okuyucularıyla paylaştığımız Ahıskalı kadın aydınımız Şefika Şeyhzade-Efendizade'dir. Övüncümüzün kaynağı, onun birkaç yönden ilk ve öncü olmasıdır. Azerbaycan ve genellikle Türk dünyası eğitim, kültür, edebiyat tarihinde önemli yer tutan Şefika Şeyhzade-Efendizade, ilk kadın öğretmen, ilk kadın eğitimci-pedagog, ilk kadın gazeteci, ilk kadın yazar olmak gibi şeref payelerine sahiptir
At that time, Muharrem Ergin (1923-1995) was one of the leading Turkish philologists and an expert in ancient Turkish literature. Ergin was the descendant of an emigrant family from the Ahiska region of Georgia and studied philology at Istanbul University under the exiled Azerbaijani professor Ahmet Caferoğlu
Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'ın talimatı, Başbakanlık koordinasyonuyla Ukrayna'dan Türkiye'ye getirilerek Erzincan'ın Üzümlü ilçesine yerleştirilen Ahıska Türklerinden 16 yaşındaki Elvira, Slovenya'da 3-5 Kasım'da düzenlenen Yıldızlar Balkan Şampiyonası'nda kızlar 46 kiloda şampiyonluğa ulaştı.
Kazakistan'ın Aktobe takımında top koşturan Özbekistan vatandaşı Ahıskalı Türkü Timur Kapadze, Haziran ayının en iyi futbolcusu seçildi.
Mediha Kayra was born in 1902 in Trabzon and died 2003 in Kadıköy, Istanbul, when she was 101 years old. Her father was the merchant (tüccar) Ali Lütfi Dihkanzade (1869–1931). His family originated from Azerbaijan. Her mother, Kadriye Salihoğlu, originated from Akhaltsikhe (türk. Ahıska) in southwest Georgia. The families had emigrated to Trabzon following the wars with Russia in 1878 and 1828.
Azerbaycan'ın önde gelen Sporcularından, Judo dalında Olimpiyat Oyunları ve Dünya birincisi, ayrıca Sambo dalında Dünya ve Avrupa Şampiyonu, emektar Spor ustası, aslen Ahıska Türkü olan hamşehrimiz, Azerbaycan'ın emektar Anrenörü Mevlüd Miraliyev Göygöl Olimpiyat Kompleksinin Mudürü vazifesine tayın edildi.
Azerbaycan'ın önde gelen sporcularından Mevlüd Miraliyev, 27 Şubat 1974 Özbekistan doğumlu. Aslen Ahıska Türklerindendir.
С началом Великой Отечественной войны было мобилизовано практически всё взрослое мужское турецкое население (более 40 тыс. человек, 26 тыс. из них погибли), восемь человек стали Героями Советского Союза, трое – полными кавалерами орденов Славы. Тремя орденами Славы был награждён Минур Иса оглы Мамедов, который последний период жизни провёл в Кабардино-Балкарии, в городе Нарткале.
Sovyetler Birliği'nce 14 Kasım 1944'de Gürcistan'ın Ahıska bölgesinden sürgün edilen Ahıska Türkü ailelerinden Emrah Ormanoğlu, Ukrayna'daki iç karışıklık dolayısıyla zor şartlarda başladığı güreşi, çok sevmesine rağmen devam ettiremedi.
Fatih Osmanlı; 11 Eylül 1979 Almatı Kazakistan doğumlu aslen Ahıska Türkü'dür. 2017 yılında Vatanı Türkiye'ye yerleşip temel oyunculuk dersleri alıp hayal ettiği oyunculuk kariyerine başladı. Kuruluş dizisinde başarılı oyunculuk performansı ile dikkatleri çekmeyi başardı.
Anne tarafı selanik muhaciri, Babası Ahıska Türk'üdür.
Ah benim öz be öz Ahıska Türkü annem.
1944'te Sovyetler Birliği döneminde Kazakistan'a sürgüne gönderilen Ahıska Türkleri'nden olan Tagir ailesinin kaderi, Ravil'in teyzesi Maygül Hanım'ın evlenip Bursa'ya yerleşmesiyle değişiyor.
Fırat Tanış, 5 Mayıs 1975 tarihinde İstanbul, Kadıköy'de doğmuştur. Tam adı Nuri Fırat Tanış'dır. Gürcistan; Ahıska kökenli ve annesi babası terzi olan Fırat Tanış ailenin en küçük çocuğudur.
esepsiyonda konuşan Topçu minnettarlıklarını belirterek "ben bir Ahıska Türk'ü ailenin çocuğuyum. Yıllar önce akrabalarımı bağırlarına bastıkları için Kazakistan halkına minnettarım.
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1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition. | |||||
