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GEORGIA: A NEW BILL ON THE REHABILITATION OF THE MESKHETIANS UNDER CONSIDERATION
By Sophie Tournon in Paris, translated by Kathryn Gaylord-Miles
Caucaz, Georgia
http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_conte nu.php?id=322
July 24 2007
Since June 14th, the Georgian press has focused on the topic of the
Meskhetians, a population deported from Georgia in 1944 and never
rehabilitated. The Georgian Parliament has begun the consideration
of one of the most controversial questions, yet one that has sat on
Parliament's back burner for the past fifteen years. The current haste
is curious, given the misunderstanding and indifference long sustained
by the question of rehabilitating one of the last peoples punished
by being forbidden to repatriate, along with the Crimean Tatars.
This unexpected bill is about the rehabilitation of 20,000 Meskhetians,
or more exactly, "deportees forced from Georgia in the 1940s by the
Soviet authorities," a formula that includes not only the Meskhetians
(or Meskhetian Turks) but also Soviet Turks, Kurds, Hamshenis (Armenian
Muslims) and Gypsies who were run off their land at the same time in
September 1944. Submitted by the majority political group, the National
Movement - the Democrats, in the most discreet manner possible, all the
same, the bill was unable to escape the general outcry raised by the
other parliamentary groups fiercely opposed to this poisonous issue.
To understand the desire for discretion by the deputies supporting
the bill, it must be remembered that the question of the return of the
Meskhetians is directly linked to two sensitive issues in Georgia. On
the one hand, these exiles, scattered throughout the post-Soviet space
(Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine) represent a community
of 300,000 people whose identity poses a problem to the tenants of
a Georgian Georgia: the Meskhetians are Turkish-speaking Muslims who
have had practically no contact with their fatherland for more than
two generations. On the other hand, the question of their return
is often packaged with and dependent upon the return of Georgian
displaced persons from Abkhazia and North Ossetia. In both cases,
the Meskhetians's repatriation faces a strong hostility as much from
the political class and the media, as from the civilian population
which only understands that "strangers" can reclaim the land and
rights that they themselves lack.
In any case, the bill's well-known prudence has exploded into being,
dividing the parliament and perhaps the country on a question which
essentially has not been directly addressed since independence. Why
is this bill appearing now? The only worthwhile explanation resides
in the obligation the European Council imposed in 1999: in adhering
to it, Georgia accepts to resolve this problem within twelve years,
that is to say, before 2011. Time has passed, and bills have been
presented and rejected. Despite everything, the tergiversations of
different Georgian governments have been unable to modify the European
Council's calendar. It was time to take action.
According to the bill, candidates for repatriation must present
themselves to the Georgian embassy in their country or to the Georgian
Minister of Refugees to register a request for repatriation status
before the 1st of January 2009. It is interesting to note that this
status is a Georgian "creation" on the international level, as it does
not correspond to any recognized legal practice. Once this status is
received, the applicants lose their nationality and become naturalized
Georgians. All the same, the documents-the content of which is not
yet known: it is unclear whether, applicants must prove that their
family was deported, as was the case under a preceding bill-are put
into files and are first studied by the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
which reserves the right of veto over their acceptance of the case. The
criteria of the decisions are not yet specified. Finally, for the
happy ones who are repatriated, no aid or compensation of any sort
is promised.
In the Parliament, the opposition demanded guarantees in posing
"good questions": will there be a quota policy to spread out the
returned people? Why does this bill speak of 20,000 Meskhetians,
while the total population exceeds two to three hundred thousand,
and the actual number of repatriation candidates is unknown? Will a
minimal knowledge of Georgian culture, laws, traditions and national
history be required for repatriation candidates? Will the opinion of
the public largely opposed to the "return of the Turks" be taken into
account? Finally, will the repatriated people be required to spread out
over all of Georgia, or may they create an ethnic enclave in Meskhetia?
This last point is crucial for the Conservative Party, whose
spokesperson Zviad Dzidziguri has assessed the bill as "a danger to the
State and the law" of Georgia. According to Dzidziguri, an uncontrolled
return of the Meskhetians will inevitably, automatically lead to
an ethnic conflict in Samtskhe-Javakheti, where a large Armenian
population lives. The Armenians' fear is that such an "invasion"
would keep them out of Meskhetia.
The question of the Meskhetians' rehabilitation opens the proverbial
can of worms. All the same, in a statement made during her visit
to France, Georgian Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze affirmed
that the bill would serve as the basis for another law. Elsewhere,
the parliamentary majority emphasized the "collateral effect" sought
via this bill: a rapprochement with Europe which backs this bill,
and better presentibility for NATO, to which Georgia aspires.
Is it a new hope for Meskhetians desiring to rediscover the homeland
of their fathers, or is it a new false promise? The fate of the
disillusioned population no longer rests, as it long has, in the hands
of Georgia. Most have made the choice to become a part of their host
country. However, such a law, if it were adopted, would finally give
the choice to a punished people: the choice to stay or to return. The
choice to dream, in some sense...
By Sophie Tournon in Paris, translated by Kathryn Gaylord-Miles
Caucaz, Georgia
http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_conte nu.php?id=322
July 24 2007
Since June 14th, the Georgian press has focused on the topic of the
Meskhetians, a population deported from Georgia in 1944 and never
rehabilitated. The Georgian Parliament has begun the consideration
of one of the most controversial questions, yet one that has sat on
Parliament's back burner for the past fifteen years. The current haste
is curious, given the misunderstanding and indifference long sustained
by the question of rehabilitating one of the last peoples punished
by being forbidden to repatriate, along with the Crimean Tatars.
This unexpected bill is about the rehabilitation of 20,000 Meskhetians,
or more exactly, "deportees forced from Georgia in the 1940s by the
Soviet authorities," a formula that includes not only the Meskhetians
(or Meskhetian Turks) but also Soviet Turks, Kurds, Hamshenis (Armenian
Muslims) and Gypsies who were run off their land at the same time in
September 1944. Submitted by the majority political group, the National
Movement - the Democrats, in the most discreet manner possible, all the
same, the bill was unable to escape the general outcry raised by the
other parliamentary groups fiercely opposed to this poisonous issue.
To understand the desire for discretion by the deputies supporting
the bill, it must be remembered that the question of the return of the
Meskhetians is directly linked to two sensitive issues in Georgia. On
the one hand, these exiles, scattered throughout the post-Soviet space
(Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine) represent a community
of 300,000 people whose identity poses a problem to the tenants of
a Georgian Georgia: the Meskhetians are Turkish-speaking Muslims who
have had practically no contact with their fatherland for more than
two generations. On the other hand, the question of their return
is often packaged with and dependent upon the return of Georgian
displaced persons from Abkhazia and North Ossetia. In both cases,
the Meskhetians's repatriation faces a strong hostility as much from
the political class and the media, as from the civilian population
which only understands that "strangers" can reclaim the land and
rights that they themselves lack.
In any case, the bill's well-known prudence has exploded into being,
dividing the parliament and perhaps the country on a question which
essentially has not been directly addressed since independence. Why
is this bill appearing now? The only worthwhile explanation resides
in the obligation the European Council imposed in 1999: in adhering
to it, Georgia accepts to resolve this problem within twelve years,
that is to say, before 2011. Time has passed, and bills have been
presented and rejected. Despite everything, the tergiversations of
different Georgian governments have been unable to modify the European
Council's calendar. It was time to take action.
According to the bill, candidates for repatriation must present
themselves to the Georgian embassy in their country or to the Georgian
Minister of Refugees to register a request for repatriation status
before the 1st of January 2009. It is interesting to note that this
status is a Georgian "creation" on the international level, as it does
not correspond to any recognized legal practice. Once this status is
received, the applicants lose their nationality and become naturalized
Georgians. All the same, the documents-the content of which is not
yet known: it is unclear whether, applicants must prove that their
family was deported, as was the case under a preceding bill-are put
into files and are first studied by the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
which reserves the right of veto over their acceptance of the case. The
criteria of the decisions are not yet specified. Finally, for the
happy ones who are repatriated, no aid or compensation of any sort
is promised.
In the Parliament, the opposition demanded guarantees in posing
"good questions": will there be a quota policy to spread out the
returned people? Why does this bill speak of 20,000 Meskhetians,
while the total population exceeds two to three hundred thousand,
and the actual number of repatriation candidates is unknown? Will a
minimal knowledge of Georgian culture, laws, traditions and national
history be required for repatriation candidates? Will the opinion of
the public largely opposed to the "return of the Turks" be taken into
account? Finally, will the repatriated people be required to spread out
over all of Georgia, or may they create an ethnic enclave in Meskhetia?
This last point is crucial for the Conservative Party, whose
spokesperson Zviad Dzidziguri has assessed the bill as "a danger to the
State and the law" of Georgia. According to Dzidziguri, an uncontrolled
return of the Meskhetians will inevitably, automatically lead to
an ethnic conflict in Samtskhe-Javakheti, where a large Armenian
population lives. The Armenians' fear is that such an "invasion"
would keep them out of Meskhetia.
The question of the Meskhetians' rehabilitation opens the proverbial
can of worms. All the same, in a statement made during her visit
to France, Georgian Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze affirmed
that the bill would serve as the basis for another law. Elsewhere,
the parliamentary majority emphasized the "collateral effect" sought
via this bill: a rapprochement with Europe which backs this bill,
and better presentibility for NATO, to which Georgia aspires.
Is it a new hope for Meskhetians desiring to rediscover the homeland
of their fathers, or is it a new false promise? The fate of the
disillusioned population no longer rests, as it long has, in the hands
of Georgia. Most have made the choice to become a part of their host
country. However, such a law, if it were adopted, would finally give
the choice to a punished people: the choice to stay or to return. The
choice to dream, in some sense...