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Meskhetian
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Meskhetian
A community of Turkish descent that formerly inhabited Meskhetia, on the then Turkish–Soviet border. They were deported by Stalin in 1944 to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and have campaigned since then for a return to their homeland. In June 1989 at least 70 were killed in pogroms directed against their community in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan by the ethnic Uzbeks.
Stalin distrusted the Meskhetians' potentially pro-Turk leanings; an estimated 30,000–50,000 of the 200,000 deported died in the process. In 1989 34,000 of the 160,000 living in Uzbekistan were evacuated after pogroms, which resulted from the refusal of the Meskhetians, who are mostly Shia Muslims, to join with the predominantly Sunni Muslim Uzbeks in an anti-Soviet pan-Islamic front.
© RM 2009. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
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