How many villages there were
According to NKVD data, in November 1944 the people of 212 villages were deported. By estimate, the districts break down roughly like this: Ahıska (Akhaltsikhe) — 64, Adigön — 72, Aspinza — 59, Ahılkelek — 11, Bogdanovka — 2. The linguist Serdar Bulut, in “Ahıska Ağzı” (2017), also writes of “more than two hundred villages”.
One village — many names
Each village has a Turkish name the elders remember and a Georgian one on today’s maps; Soviet documents also give a Russian one. Azgur is Atskuri (Atskhur), Tsinis is Tsinisi, Varhan is Varkhani. That is why families often cannot find their home village on a map.
Our directory
Our directory of villages lists 322 villages by district, with other spellings. The search understands any spelling: “Цинис”, “Tsinis” and “Tsinisi” lead to the same village. If your village is missing or you remember it differently — write to us, we will check and add it.
The list of villages is open to researchers and other projects — no sign-in needed.
Districts
Sources sometimes disagree about which district a village belonged to. The village name is more reliable than the district.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Deportation of the Meskhetian Turks
- Наш справочник сёл — /roots/villages (322 села, другие написания, районы)
- Открытый список сёл для исследователей и проектов — /api/villages-export
- Asif Hacılı, “Ahıska Türk Folkloru” — the biographies of ashiks name villages (Panaket, Varnet, Lebis, Dersel, Big and Small Smada, Plate)
- Serdar Bulut, “Ahıska Ağzı” (2017)