Ahiska, which is located within the borders of Georgia today, came under Ottoman rule after the Battle of Childir in 1578. Until the Russian occupation in 1828, it was a frontier city of the Ottoman State for exactly 250 years. It had 21 districts. Today, eleven of these districts are in Turkey, and nine are on the Turkish border of Georgia. After the Ottoman State conquered Georgia in 1578, Turks selected from Central Anatolia, especially from Konya, Tokat, and Yozgat, were settled in the Ahiska region.
Three Great Calamities
Ahiska Turks faced three major calamities in history. The first was in 1828, when Tsarist Russia occupied Ahiska, burning and destroying the city, turning it into ruins. They also subjected the people to great cruelty. The Russians bombed the Ahiska fortress day and night for eight days starting from August 10th. The Ahmediye Mosque, the palace, and the houses within the fortress were destroyed. They attacked three times until August 10th but could not capture the fortress. Upon this, the cruel Russian commander Paskevich ordered a huge fire to be started in the city. As the fire spread everywhere in the city, women and children took refuge in the fortress. Many women threw themselves into the fire to avoid falling into the hands of the Russians. After a ten-day defense, the fortress fell to the Russians.
The second
The second disaster occurred in 1944. The cruel Stalin conscripted approximately 40,000 Ahiska Turks between the ages of 16 and 50 during World War II and sent them to the German front. None of these people had received military training, and most of them died in the war. Only the elderly, women, and children remained in the villages and towns. They also employed the women on railway constructions throughout the war. On November 14, 1944, they exiled all the remaining Turks in Ahiska. When those who survived the war returned to their homeland, they could not find any of their parents or relatives. Armenians and Christian Georgians had settled in their homes and villages. This time, they took to the roads to find their families who had been scattered all over the boundless Soviet Russia.
The Third
The third calamity occurred in June 1989. The Ahiska Turks who had settled in the Fergana region of Uzbekistan after the 1944 exile quickly got along with their Uzbek brothers, integrated with them, and became friends and relatives. They were all living in peace together. Shortly before the collapse of the Soviets, likely instigated by the KGB(Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti in Russian, which translates to the Committee for State Security in English), a group of drunk, drug-addicted, vagrant youth began to loot, burn, and demolish the homes of the Ahiska Turks.
They killed people, regardless of whether they were women, children, or elderly. The Communist regime at the time did not intervene immediately. After these incidents, which continued for several days, around 17,000 Ahiska Turks were subjected to a new exile. The people, having lost everything, their homes and possessions, were crammed into temporary camps. Here, they suffered great hardships, hunger, and thirst under very difficult conditions. From there, they were again dispersed to various regions of Russia.
Memories from Ali Ali Pasha Veyseloğlu
Who was Ali Pasha Veyseloğlu?
Ali Pasha, one of the Ahiska Turks, was a poet and teacher. He was born in the town of Aspinza in 1924. He graduated from a pedagogy college in 1940 and worked as a teacher in his village. In 1942, during World War II, he was conscripted by the Soviet Russian government. He was awarded the “Medal of Heroism” and received seven other medals for his success in the war. After returning from the front, he, like the other Ahiska Turks, was exiled from his homeland and native country. Ali Pasha is a powerful folk poet. His poems are dominated by love for his country and nation, as well as national and spiritual elements. His war and exile memories and poems were first published in 2003 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, under the name “Vatan ve Gurbet” (Homeland and Exile). Ali Pasha passed away in 2010.
The passages below are memories of the Ali Pasha, who personally experienced this war and exile tragedy:
They Crammed Us into Animal Wagons
“By the order of the cruel Stalin, on the night of November 14, 1944, Russian soldiers sent to the Ahiska region knocked on the doors of all Turkish houses one by one and forced the people out at midnight. They read Stalin’s order to us. They told us to take only as many belongings and food as they could carry in our hands for the journey. On November 14, 1944, as soon as the Ahiska Turks left their homes and villages under the threat of Russian soldiers, Armenians and Christian Georgians came in groups and immediately began looting our homes and belongings, dividing our lands among themselves, and adding our flocks of sheep to their own herds. The Georgians looked at us with a slight sense of shame, remembering the days we lived as friends.
“The wagons were very cold. People did not have winter clothes on.”
The Armenians shouted, ‘Now we are taking our revenge on you!’ When we arrived at the train station, we saw that the wagons used for transporting cargo and animals had arrived. There were so many trains that they covered an area of ten kilometers. They immediately began cramming us into the wagons like animals. They put 8-10 families in each wagon, like stuffing hay and straw. The wagons were filled to the brim. Half of some families were in one wagon, and the other half in another. Women and children were crying. That moment felt like the Day of Judgment. We set off without fathers knowing about their sons, or mothers about their daughters. It was a very long time before they started giving us food. The wagons were very cold. People did not have winter clothes on.
We huddled inside mattresses and blankets to keep warm. We couldn’t even find water to drink. Every passing day, people became dirtier. The inside of the wagons stank like carrion. Even rats wouldn’t live in such a place. Soon, lice began to appear too. The surfaces of the blankets and beds were covered with lice. The cold, combined with hunger and filth, was destroying people. But what weighed heaviest on us was being treated like this. This was devastating us.”
The Dead Were Thrown Out of the Wagons
“Since the exile trains were packed, people had difficulty moving inside. In some places, the trains were delayed for one or two days without moving. Various diseases and deaths began among the people. The Russian soldiers threw the dead onto the ground 20-30 meters away from the railway. They had no graves and became food for animals. Since people were crammed into the wagons like animals, the need for a toilet was a major problem. Our daughters and brides, who were raised as monuments of modesty in the paradise of Akhiska, could not relieve themselves out of shame in front of the men. Some of them died from bursting.
This journey was also killing the modesty in us. Ten or fifteen men in the wagon would turn our backs to prevent the women using the toilet from being seen. When the train came to the Volga River, the Russian soldiers warned everyone not to open the doors or look out the windows, saying they would kill anyone who resisted. Because of this, people were very scared and anxious. Typhus and plague had also started in the wagons. We thought they were going to dump us all into the Volga River. The train was kept waiting over the Volga for two nights. Everyone started crying and forgiving each other. The sounds of weeping and rebellion reached the sky.
Uncle Bilal, who was in our wagon, stood up and shouted loudly, “O my relatives and friends! We are about to migrate from this mortal world. Before they dump us into the river, let us recite the Kalima-i Shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith), seek repentance and forgiveness, and forgive each other.’ The people, with tears in their eyes, forgave each other and offered prayers.”
Children Born on the Train
“There were pregnant women on the train. At that moment, a bride fell to the floor from the pain and suffering in her belly. The elderly women took the bride to the other side of the wagon, drew a curtain, and waited there. The men and the bride’s father-in-law were on the other side of the wagon. The bride gave birth to a child, screaming. Our faces were bright red from shame. We wished the earth would split open and swallow us rather than hear those sounds and suffer that distress. Aunt Sheyda(Şeyda), one of the elderly women, came and announced that a baby boy had been born, and that we had gained one more brave man. Uncle Şükrü was crying and shouting, “They are planning to drown us. Okay, we are enemies of the regime, but what is the sin of this newborn child?“
Binali Hodja, however, consoled the community, saying, “My relatives, do not be afraid, Allah is gracious. Why would the infidels who want to throw us into the water close the doors and wait for two days and two nights. It seems to me that, with the grace of Allahu ta’ala, we will be saved.” At that moment, when the doors were opened quickly, the children and women got scared and started crying loudly. Just like sheep huddling together from fear of the wolf, they gathered together and hugged each other. While the children screamed “Mama, Mama!”, the women held their young children close to their chests and cried. The soldiers, knowing what we were thinking, said, “Don’t be afraid, no problem, the train will start moving now, we will not throw you into the river.”
Garip Turk
However, many people had died from fear and anxiety. Among the dead was Nergiz, a freshly blooming bride. After throwing the bodies of the deceased into the Volga River, the train slowly started moving. The Hodja’s sincere prayer had been accepted. The people had forgotten their hunger out of fear. When the train started moving, they remembered they were hungry. Before eating, Uncle Binali recited the call to prayer (Azaan) into the ear of the newborn child and asked, “What name should we give this child now?” An elderly woman said, “Let’s name this child Garip Türk (Hapless Turk) and this name was accepted. Garip Türk currently lives in Shymkent/ Kazakhstan.”
And Today…
The Ahiska Turks, both during the Tsarist period and after the 1944 exile period, got to know the entire Turkish geography they were scattered across very well, quickly integrated with the local Turks there, and learned Russian very well along with Turkish dialects. The majority of them attended various schools. Having known these regions beforehand gave them a great social and economic advantage. They began coming to Turkey with the collapse of the Soviets in the 1990s. Today, tens of thousands of Ahiska Turks live in Bursa, Istanbul, and Erzincan. The Ahiska Turks are very hardworking and faithful people.
Despite the difficult conditions they lived through in the steppes of Central Asia where they were exiled, they set an example for the Turks of Turkistan by building houses and establishing vineyards and gardens. The Ahiska people who settled in Turkey following the collapse of the Soviets and the establishment of the Turkish republics frequently travel back and forth to the countries they lived in, visiting their relatives and friends there, and engaging in successful commercial activities.
Until the Ahiska Turks came to Turkey, we had no news of Akhiska, which is right next to us, nor of their exiles…
Sources:
- “Vatan ve Gurbet (Homeland and Exile)” – Ali Pasha Veyseloğlu
- “Rus Türk Mücadelesinde Ahıska Türkleri (The Ahiska Turks in the Russian-Turkish Struggle)” – Dr. Seyfeddin Buntürk
