Депортацията и невъзможното завръщане на турците-месхетинци (ахъска) от Съветска Грузия след 1944 г.
The Deportation and Impossible Return of the Meskhetian (Ahiska) Turks from Soviet Georgia after 1944

Summary/Abstract: From the 1920s to the end of the 1940s, the Soviet Union’s authorities used forced migration / deportation as a repressive measure to control and intimidate the populations of the multiethnic soviet state. About 6 million people were deported from their native lands during this period, including 8 entire ethnic groups who were exiled to Central Asia, Siberia and Russia’s Far East. One of these communities is the almost unknown in Bulgaria community of the Meskhetian (Ahiska) Turks. This study focuses on an analysis of the historiographical debates about Meskhetian Turks – an ethnic group who has experienced an ongoing exile since 1944. The study presents the traumatic experiences of the Meskhetian Turks during and after the process of deportation and their years in exile and also the construction of their collective group identity. The text also discusses issues related to theoretical understanding of ethnic identity formation among displaced minority groups.

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