Meskhetians` Repatriation Issue Still Remains Unsolved

125 000 Muslim Meskhetians were deported from southern Georgia to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on 15 November 1944. In 1999, upon joining the Council of Europe, Georgia committed itself to repatriate the deported Meskhetians before 2012.

Georgia has to adopt a law on the return of Meskhetians according to a commitment undertaken by the Georgian authorities; but both the previous as well as the new authorities in the country have been delayed adoption of this law citing the IDP problem.

Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said while speaking at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe’s monitoring committee in Tbilisi on October 25,  that she sees repatriation of Meskhetians, who were deported from Georgia in 1944, as almost impossible at the moment, citing the presence of around 300,000 internally displaced persons, mainly from breakaway Abkhazia.

However, the non-governmental organizations, working over the Meskhetians’ problems, do not agree with this position, claiming that this is the same as to prohibit IDPs from Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetian and Abkhazia to return to their homes, citing the reason of repatriation of Meskhetians. 

Chairman of the Union of Georgian Repatriates Marat Baratashvili claims, that the new authorities has no political will to settle the repatriation issue. “One year has passed, since the new authorities came to power. During this period no commission or working group has been set up to work over this issue. If the new authorities had a political will, this would have been revealed for past 12 months,” he says.  

During the previous authorities, two versions of the draft law on repatriation of deported Meskhetians have been elaborated: one of them was developed at the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), the other was elaborated by Guram Mamulia and the Meskhetian non-governmental organizations. Since the authorities of that time claimed the GYLA draft law to be more appropriate and relevant to Georgian legislation and international norms, it was discussed by the governmental commission. “However, time and the results of several expertise evidenced to the contrary. Only the title has remained unchanged in this draft law” says Marat Baratashvili.  

However, as Marat Baratashvili claims, “this draft law has a discriminative character. It includes a mechanism, which hampers repatriation. A person should produce numerous documents: references on deportation, ethnic origination, language and religion, etc. Most of these documents are impossible to be obtained. The draft law is discriminative, since it prohibits a repatriate to choose habitation himself. This contradicts with the constitution of Georgia.” At the same time “this is not an exhaustive list of discriminative provisions; however the existence of even one such provision is enough to consider the law invalid” says Marat Baratashvili.

At the same time, Klara Baratashvili, the Chairman of the Union of the Latifsha Baratashvili’s Successors, says, that the mentioned draft law does not recognize the deported Meskhetians as the victims of political repressions, that, in her opinion, is not real.

The first European expertise of the draft law was conducted in March 2001, and the second – in April 2002. Subsequently, particular remarks were made regarding the draft and it was amended. “The third discussion should have been appointed in March 2003, however it failed due to the famous developments last November,” says Davit Japaridze, the Head of the Repatriation Department of the Ministry for Refugees and Accommodation.

He said, the current draft law is based on the following principles of repatriation: voluntarism, gradation, accommodation on the entire territory of Georgia and imposing quotas by Georgia.
At the same time, the exact number of those persons, who wish to return to Georgia is unknown so far. However, as Davit Japaridze claims, “repatriation of a part of the deported Meskhetians is discussed. The most important is to start thinking over this issue.”

According to the data of the Ministry for Refugees and Accommodation, up to 700 Meskhetians live on the territory of Georgia presently. Most of them are Georgian citizens. However, the attitude of the Georgian society towards repatriation of the Meskhetians is extremely negative.

“This is basically caused by a negative propaganda conducted against the Meskhetians within past 70 years. Today it is hard to break negative stereotypes,” Klara Baratashvili says.

In the opinion of the non-governmental organizations, working over the problems of deported Meskhetians, the society should have thorough information regarding the deported Meskhetians. According to the existing stereotype, they are the enemies of Georgia, Muslims, whose return will pose a danger to Georgia’s security, especially when the problems of Samachablo and Abkhazia remain unsettled.

Anyway, the Georgian government has undertaken a commitment before the Council of Europe over repatriation of the Meskhetians. The Council of Europe, the UNRHC and the OSCE are ready to assist the Georgian government in this process, however only in case if the authorities express a clear political will regarding this issue.