Ahiska Turks cannot forget sorrowful memories of 77-year exile

BITLIS, Turkey

Ahiska Turks, who were brought to Turkey from Ukraine and settled in Bitlis province in 2016 on instructions from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, still suffer the pain of exile when they were deported from their homeland in 1944 under Soviet rule.

In 1944, more than 92,000 Ahiska Turks, also known as Meskhetian Turks, were expelled from Georgia’s Meskheti region by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, according to the World Ahiska Turks Association.

Seventy-two Ahiska Turks families have continued to live in the Ahlat district where they arrived five years ago.

Simizar Mehmetoglu, 81, who was exiled with her family at the age of 4, told Anadolu Agency that they were hungry, thirsty and naked in exile.

Mehmetoglu said she could not go to school, could not get enough of her mother and did not see her father after soldiers took him.

She said she and her siblings were first exiled to Uzbekistan when they were young. “I entered Uzbekistan young and leave old. There are no mom and dad. We lived as orphans in Uzbekistan for 40 years," she said

Mehmetoglu recalled that they went to Ukraine after Uzbekistan. From there, they were brought to Turkey upon instructions from Erdogan. "May Allah be pleased with those who helped us. May the gates of paradise be opened for them,” she said.

Saniye Binali, 65, who was born in exile, said she went through very painful days during the exile.

“My flesh trembled when I recall it (the exile) now. We lived well in Uzbekistan, where I was born. I studied until the tenth grade. I got married there and have four children. When the Fergana events broke out in 1989, they tortured us a lot,” she said, referring to the massacre of hundreds of Ahiska Turks by native Uzbeks. “From there we went to Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Russia. Finally, I returned to Ukraine. Then we came to Turkey.”

Yasar Huseyin, 61, said his family will not leave Turkey, adding they love the country.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan