May — June 1989
In the summer of 1989 bloody clashes in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley targeted the Ahıska Turks. The army evacuated about 17,000 people from the valley. Tens of thousands more left the republic after them — more than 70,000 in all. For the people this was the second exile in half a century.
Where they went
- Azerbaijan — about 46,000 refugees settled there in 1989, above all in Saatly, Sabirabad, Khachmaz, Beylagan and Baku.
- Russia — Krasnodar Krai, the Rostov and Belgorod regions, Kabardino-Balkaria.
- Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
- Ukraine — in 1990 some families moved to the south of the country.
That same year
On 14 November 1989, the 45th anniversary of the deportation, the USSR Supreme Soviet declared the forced resettlement of peoples illegal and criminal. It did not bring the right to return to Ahıska.