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#30 - JRL 2008-191 - JRL Home
Russian Duma accuses Georgia of failure to resettle Meskhetian Turks
RIA-Novosti
October 17, 2008

The State Duma, lower chamber of the Russian parliament, has called on the world community to put pressure on Georgia following the latter's failure to meet its obligations to resettle Meskhetian Turks, RIA Novosti news agency reported today.

The chamber adopted a statement which appeals to the UN and international parliamentary organizations, drawing their attention to the plight of Meskhetian Turks as a result of the "Georgian regime's antidemocratic actions".

Meskhetian Turks are ethnic Turks who used to inhabit Georgia's Meskheti region. They were deported in the 1940s. In June 2007 the Georgian parliament passed a law on resettling Meskhetian Turks.

"The State Duma deputies are deeply concerned that Georgia has not met its international obligations to resettle Meskhetian Turks," the Duma statement says.

According to the MPs, back in 1999, when Georgia was joining the Council of Europe, it pledged to pass legislation to resolve the issue of resettlement and integration of Meskhetian Turks in the next two years. A relevant law was passed by Georgia only in 2007 - "in other words, almost 10 years after it joined the Council of Europe", the Duma statement says.

Under the law, those who want to resettle on Georgian territory are supposed to do so during the period between 1 January 2008 and 1 January 2009 but, as a result of convoluted requirements and restrictions stipulated by the law, only several dozen people of alleged 90,000 have so far been able to use their right to resettle in Georgia.

Addressing the Duma, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma international affairs committee, said, as broadcast by Russian Channel One TV: "At the end of last year the Georgian authorities finally passed the long-awaited law which, allegedly, was supposed to resolve the problem. The law remains in force until the end of the year. It is drawn up in such a casuistic manner that as of today only 15 people of several dozen thousands have been able to take advantage of it. So it is yet another fiction, another sheet of paper that doesn't work and doesn't allow people to resolve their problems."