AHISKA TÜRKLERİ'NİN VADEDİLMEYEN AMERİKA TOPRAKLARINA ZORAKİ SÜRGÜNÜ: YAŞANAN SOSYAL, KÜLTÜREL VE EKONOMİK ZORLUKLAR

İki yüz bin kişi oldukları tahmin edilen Ahıska Türkleri'nin vatanlarından zorla sürgün edilmeleri fazla detaya girmeden izah edilecek olursa, İzlanda, Svaziland, Kuveyt veya Alaska'nın genel nüfusuyla birlikte bir gecede arkasında hiçbir iz bırakmadan yok olmasına denk bir olaydır.Ahıska Türkleri'nin vatanlarından sürülmesine yol açan en önemli sebep, onların Türk olmalarıydı. Ahıska Türkleri'nin yaşadıkları topraklardan sürülmesi için Sovyet yetkilileri tarafından seçilmesine en etkin sebep, Türklerle Ermeniler arasında tarihi husumet idi. Sovyet yetkilileri, Güney Gürcistan'da ileride hayata geçirmeyi düşündükleri yeni düzenlemelere bu bölgede yaşayan Ahıska Türkleri'nin karşı çıkabileceği korkusunu taşıyorlardı. Stalin İkinci Dünya Savaşı'nın sonuna doğru Türkiye'nin lehine casusluk yapma ithamıyla Kuzeydoğu Anadolu'ya sınır olan bölgelerde yaşayan ve Türkiye'ye sevgi besleyen halkların bölgeden temizlenmesi operasyonuna başlanmasını emretmiştir. Ahıska Türkleri sürgün hayatına mecbur edildikleri günden beri hâlâ vatanları olmadan yaşamaya devam ediyorlar. 1944 yılında yaşadıkları topraklardan zorla sürgün edildikleri günden beri gönderildikleri ülkelerde "istenmeyen topluluk" olarak insanlık dışı muameleye muhatap olmuşlardır. Bu durumda, Türkiye'nin yapacağı iş, Ahıska Türkleri'ni "Milli Göçmen" olarak kabul etmektir, fakat her başvuran Ahıskalı otomatik olarak Türk vatandaşlığına kabul edilmemektedir. Ahıska Türkleri'nin bu halledilmemiş meselesi, ilginç tarihi ve politik bir mesele olmaktan çok öte bir şeydir, bu mesele yeni bir milletin doğuşundan çok öte bir şeydir ve bu mesele henüz halledilmemiş eski Sovyet Orta Asya'sına ilave edilmiş yeni bir element olmaktan da öte bir olaydır. Biz bu akademik araştırmamızda, sürgün edebilmiş oldukları Sovyet topraklarından yeniden Amerika'da vaat edilmemiş topraklara zorla yeniden sürgün edilen Ahıska Türkleri'nin orada karşılaştıkları ekonomik, sosyal ve kültürel problemleri incelemeye çalışacağız.

The Forced Migration of Meskheti Turks to Unpromissed American Land: Social, Cultural and Economic Diffuculties They Faced

Meskheti Turks the people described form a sizeable group as many as 200.000, as if roughly speaking, the population of Iceland, Swaziland, Kuwait, should disappear without a trace. Turkicness was indeed the common denominator, which earmarked the Meskheti Turks for deportation. Yet Turkicness was important in this selection process primarily because of the historical animosity between Turks and Armenians and only secondly because Soviet authorities feared that these peoples from Southern Georgia might oppose their designs on northeastern Turkey. Stalin envisaged Soviet operations in northeastern Turkey near the end of the War and acted to clean border areas of Turkish sympathizers at hence a potential "fifth column" movement. Currently the Meskheti Turks are in a continuing process of migration since they are still without a homeland. They have been in exile since 1944 and still constitute an unwanted nationality everywhere in the world. The official position of Turkey is to accept them as "national refugee", they are not automatically naturalized as Turkish citizens. The case of the Meskheti Turks, therefore, is more than an interesting historical and political event; it is more than the birth of a new nation; and it is more than an additional element contributing to an increasingly unsettled Soviet Central Asia. In our academic paper we will try to examine the economic, cultural and social difficulties of the Meskheti Turks from previously migrated Soviet land to an un-promised land in America.

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