79 years have passed since the beginning of the deportation of Turks Ahhysk from historical lands in modern Georgia.
On September 20, 1944, Joseph Stalin signed a decree that provided for the relocation of Turks from the Akhysk region (Messhetia) in the Georgian USSR on the border with Turkey, to other parts of the country.
On November 14-15, the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrenty Beria began surgery against residents of the Akhyssk region with the involvement of 20 thousand military personnel of the Soviet Army.
According to some reports, during an operation lasted from 3 to 10 days, from 86 to 116 thousand Turks -Ahyg were loaded into the train cars.
Residents of the Akhysk region, including old people, women and children, who were hastily driven into dirty and cold commodity wagons under the muzzle, did not allow me to take food and any other things.
After a month of journey in dirty wagons in harsh winter conditions, the ultimate stop of the Turks Ahhysk became the lands of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
About 17 thousand Turks Akhysk died during the path due to hunger, cold and illness. The bodies of the dead were either forced to throw it out of the wagons, or allowed to bury near the stations.
The surviving Turks Ahhysk tried to survive in difficult conditions in Central Asia until 1953, that is, until Stalin’s death.
– Stalin sought to clear the Black Sea region from the Turks
The Messhetia (Akhisk) region on the border of Georgia with Turkey was transferred to Russia under an agreement signed after the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, and annexed to Georgia, which after the First World War remained within the Soviet Union.
Messhetia again joined the Ottoman state in 1917. With the collapse of tsarist Russia, the region survived a short period of independence.
Then, in accordance with the Moscow Treaty signed between the Turkish Republic and the Soviet Union in 1921, the region again moved to Russia.
Stalin signed a decree on the expulsion of Turks Akhysk contrary to the fact that representatives of this nationality fought in the Russian army during the Second World War.
The Stalinist administration accused Turks Akhysk of cooperation with the Nazis during the Second World War.
However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became clear that this statement was not true.
According to the archives of the USSR, the purpose of the expulsion of the Crimean Turks and the Turks Ahhysk was to clean the Black Sea region from the Turks.
Despite the past decades, the Ahhysk Turks cannot erase the horrors of deportation from memory.
annually on the occasion of November 14, the Turks – Akhysk read the Qur’an and pray for those who died during and after expulsion. Memory events on this day are also organized by non-governmental organizations of Turks Akhysk. The Turks -Akhysk with gratitude recall the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek and Azerbaijani Turks, who opened the doors of their houses and shared bread with them after expulsion.