Re: Meskhetians in Krasnodar Territory
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 7 Mar 1998 20:04:31 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Meskhetians in Krasnodar Territory
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Arthur Martirosyan <[email protected]>
Re: Meskhetians in Krasnodar Territory
Dear Mr. Osipov,
I do share your and El'dar Zeynalov's concern about critical situation
in Krasnodar krai with Meskhetian Turks. However, I do not think the
solution to the problem is in letter campaigns to Russian federal or
local authorities and/or international organizations.
The ethno-political situation in Krasnodar krai has significantly
deteriorated especially since after the war in Chechnya. The number
of ethnic Russian forced migrants from Chechnya and refugees from
elsewhere is on the rise. That makes the situation of Meskhetian
Turks who came to the region after pogroms in Uzbekistan in 1989
even more volatile. Local authorities are not always capable of
controlling the ethnic Russian population which, under current social
and economic conditions of transition, is easily irritated by refugees
of other ethnic origins. Admittedly, Meskhetian Turks are often in a
worse situation than Armenians, Azeris, Kurds or other refugees but
unlike others, and by your own admission, they see Akhalkalaki in
Georgia as their final destination even though long-term. Psychologically,
that makes the perception of them by locals as a group in transit with
no loyalty or intention to integrate with the local identity rather easy.
What follows is the well known from other conflicts in the FSU pattern
of "us and them."
In other words, your claim that I am confused about two things --
1) their return to "historical motherland" and 2) current condition -- is
untenable. There is no confusion in my mind -- there is this perception
that most local Russians in the krai share. That perception is
supported by the ethno-nationalist rhetoric of Meskhetian Turkish
leaders ("historical motherland") and ethno-nationalist agenda of
Cossacks and/or other local Russians ("ponaekhali"). If that
perception were not widespread among their constituencies, Krasnodar
authorities would hardly dare to challenge federal legislation and
international norms. A number of restrictive laws targeting migrants
have been adopted in California because constituencies of local
legislators do support that. Human rights groups do raise hell here by
saying that these laws are anti-Constitutional, to say nothing of
universal human rights. I do not think that Kurds fleeing from Turkey
or Albanians will be compactly settled near Venice or Naples either.
The Georgian government, too, would not mind (or that's what some
of the officials have told me in private) Meskhetian Turks returning to
Georgia but under conditions of dispersed settlement not necessarily
in Akhalkalaki or Bogdanovka. And this really brings us to the crust
of the matter. If you are speaking about individual rights of ethnically
Meskhetian Turk forced migrants and if you really want some kind of
a solution for their difficult condition in Krasnodar krai, you cannot
achieve that goal by presenting their situation as that of a "collective"
ethno-political unit.
In the United States, too, migrants (for the sake of this example it
does not matter what forced them to migrate) can find very different
environments in different states. A number of them are illegally in the
United States and their human rights are abused but I have not heard
of any case where they'd be put as "a collective ethnic unit" in LA or
New York where chances for conflict and tensions are the highest.
Even in large urban areas where you can find compact Chinese,
Mexican, Armenian, Korean et al. "towns", it is enough to look into
the history of their settlement to find out that they historically put up
in the areas of least possible ethnic tensions. But even that has not
worked well in some cases -- during the latest outbreak of racial
violence in LA Koreans suffered the most.
In the case of Meskhetian Turks not only have they [been] settled in
an already ethnopolitically explosive region, they are encouraged by
human rights activists to advance their group interests and insist that
they should remain in Krasnodar krai no matter what. These good
intentions of human rights activists often bring ethnic/racial groups on
whose behalf they campaign to the hell of conflicts.
On Meskhetian Turks' "emigration" to Turkey I can only say that in
1992 the Turkish Parliament adopted a law on resettling Akhissian
Turks (#3835, June 2, 1992). So your question "Why Meskhetians
should go to Turkey which is an alien country for them?" should be
really addressed to the Turkish parliamentarians. I can only add that
Krasnodar krai authorities and local population views them as much
more "alien" than Turkey. As to formal mechanisms, you are right
there have been no official agreements between the RF and RT.
However, there was a joint Russian-Turkish Coordinating Committee
on the level of some joint venture established to supervise the process
of (sic!) "repatriation." The achievements of this Committee have been
laughable. But this law of the Turkish Parliament and activities of the
Committee are an additional evidence that the perception of
Meskhetian Turks as not belonging where they are now exists not only
in Krasnodar krai but also in Turkey.
To preempt an unnecessary and unproductive cycle in this discussion,
I would like to end it here by saying that we are apparently speaking
in two different languages when it comes to prescriptions of what can
be done and we shall agree to disagree. [We both agree at the level of
diagnostics of the situation on the ground (we both seem to agree that
the situation is grave.] Next thing that you may post to this list as a
response may be texts of numerous conventions, human rights
charters et al. That's the level of norms and where things SHOULD be.
Obviously, things are not where they SHOULD be re Meskhetian Turks
in Krasnodar krai but what you are suggesting to do will not avert the
tragedy. It never has anywhere in the world. The tragedy can only be
averted by a pragmatic approach to the problem and good will. There
are a number of areas in the Russian Federation where Meskhetian
Turks can be resettled -- as many of them already have. That can be
done through a comprehensive program of setting incentives such as
tax breaks, subsidized housing, compensation money etc.
Thank you for this exchange.
Sincerely,
Arthur Martirosyan,
Conflict Management Group
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