The participation of Ahiska Turks in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945

Abstract

For the first time, an analysis of documents was carried out in the article on the basis of materials from the OBD «Memorial» and the Internet portal «Memory of the People» to restore the names of 40 thousand Ahiska Turks who participated in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945, including in a partisan detachment of the Resistance movement. It is known that 26 thousand of them died or went missing. For various reasons, the Turkish population in the USSR was constantly underestimated. Thus, according to the official census of 1939, 28 480 Ahiska Turks lived in the Akhaltsikhe region. According to the Ahiska Turks themselves, the total number of Ahiska Turks deported to Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics was almost 100 000. Archival materials also indicate that only 27 833 people of Turkish nationality were deported to Kazakhstan in 1944. At the same time, it is known that in order to reduce the number of Ahiska Turks, many changed their nationality to Azerbaijanis, there are data based on the literature of «The History of Everyday Life» and the archival document of the times of war was introduced into scientific circulation confirming this fact. During the war, 8 Ahiska Turks were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Three became Full Cavaliers of the Orders of Glory. However, participants in World War II and their families were deported. The study revealed lists of natives of the Georgian SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic) who were called up to the front from four districts where Ahiska Turks compactly lived. Based on the materials of the newspaper «Ahiska», information was collected about participants in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 who fought on all fronts, who deserved government awards, but were undeservedly forgotten.