Oghuz branch
Ahiska (Meskhetian) Turks
A Turk community from the Meskheti region of southern Georgia, deported in 1944 and dispersed across several countries since.
Ahıska Türkleri
Ahiska Turks take their name from Ahıska (Akhaltsikhe), the historic centre of the Meskheti region in southern Georgia, close to the present border with Türkiye.
In November 1944 the Soviet authorities deported the entire community to Turkistan. Many families were displaced a second time after violence in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley in 1989, and today the community lives in many countries, often across several borders within a single family.
- Language
- Ahiska Turkish, a dialect close to the Turkish of north-eastern Anatolia
- Branch
- Oghuz
- Homeland
- Meskheti (today’s Samtskhe-Javakheti region) in southern Georgia
- Also living in
- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United States
Key dates
November 1944
Deportation of the whole community from Meskheti to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
1989
Violence in the Fergana Valley leads to the evacuation of many families, largely to Russia and Azerbaijan.
2004–2007
A refugee resettlement programme brings several thousand Ahiska Turks from Russia’s Krasnodar region to the United States.
2007
Georgia adopts a law on the repatriation of people deported from its territory in the 1940s.
Heritage
- Family and village memory of Meskheti, preserved through oral history across generations in exile
- Wedding music and folk songs carried from Meskheti to Turkistan and beyond
- Strong diaspora associations that maintain language and customs abroad
Sources
- T. Trier and A. Khanzhin (eds.), The Meskhetian Turks at a Crossroads: Integration, Repatriation or Resettlement? (LIT Verlag, 2007)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Meskhetian Turks”