Resettlement of Soviet Turkish Minority Seen
A parliamentary commission is being sent to Soviet Georgia, apparently to look into the resettlement there of thousands of Meskhetian Turks who were deported more than four decades ago by dictator Josef Stalin.
The government daily Izvestia reported Friday that the commission, set up to investigate riots in Uzbekistan earlier this month in which about 100 Meskhetians were killed, would be leaving for the Transcaucasian republic in a few days.
“The commission will visit Georgia and Uzbekistan, where it is to study the extremely complex situation surrounding the fate of the Meskhetian Turks and to assess the tragic events in (the Uzbek region of) Fergana,” Izvestia said.
It also quoted commission member Y. Sarvarov as expressing his “confidence in the swift rehabilitation of a people, forcibly deported from their homeland during the years of repression,” a reference to Stalin’s rule.
About 100,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported from Georgia in 1944 by Stalin, who accused them of collaboration with Nazi Germany. They were scattered over Soviet Central Asia, along with other minorities.
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