Turkey evacuates a new batch of “Ahiska Turks” from Ukraine

A new batch of “Ahiska Turks” have arrived in the eastern province of Elazig, after they were evacuated from Ukraine due to the war.

A plane carrying the group’s 151 people landed on Friday evening at Elazig Airport as part of the evacuation operations organized by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

With the arrival of the fourth batch, the number of Ahiska Turks who were transferred to a shelter in the city reached 559 people.

Fatima Reza Oglu of Ahiska Turks expressed her thanks to everyone who helped bring them to Turkey.

In turn, Bayzat Reza Oglu said that they are very happy to come to Turkey, which they love so much and see as their motherland.

Turkey had previously postponed three batches of Ahiska Turks during last April and this May.

And the Ahiska Turks were residing in the area bearing their name in southwestern Georgia, but the Soviet government exiled them in 1944 to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Siberia.

A large number of Ahiska Turks settled in the Ferghana Valley region of Uzbekistan, but about 100,000 of them were forced to leave the region after disturbances between them and the Uzbeks in 1989 and immigrated to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine.