Georgian Parliament passes Ahiska Turks repatriation bill

Georgian Parliament passes Ahiska Turks repatriation bill
# 23 June 2007 10:23 (UTC +04:00)
As a stipulation of joining the Council of Europe in 1999, Georgia agreed to guarantee the return by 2011 of the Ahiska Turks, an estimated 300,000 of which are scattered in former Soviet republics of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
About 40,000 are believed to be actively seeking to return to their ancestral homelands. The bill provides no financial assistance for resettlement, just allowing the exiled to buy home and land in Georgia to settle.
Those returning must also give up any other citizenship they have, take tests on Georgian language, history and laws.
The new legislation allows the deportees to apply to Georgian embassies for return by January 1, 2009. /APA/
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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED