Maskati Turks: History and Culture The Maskati Turks are a Turkish-speaking ethnic group whose historical roots go back to the Maskati region, located in southwestern Georgia, near the Turkish border.
They call themselves "Ahiska Turklari" (translated from Turkish as "Ahiska Turks") or "Ahalsika Turks", which is identified with the name of the city of Ahalsika. The lack of a single residential area has led to the fact that the representatives of this people are scattered across different countries, which makes it difficult to create a clear picture of their homeland. Origin of the people: language and traditions There are several versions of the origin of the Mesquite Turks:.
Descendants of Ottoman settlers. Georgians in Turkey are an ethnographic subgroup of Georgians who converted to Islam between the 16th century and 1829, when the Samcah-Javakhti region fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Descendants of the Turkic tribes that lived in the area for hundreds of years. Religiously, the majority are Sunni Muslims (Hanafi Madhab). Meskat Turks speak one of the Eastern Anatolian dialects of the Turkish language. Some scholars claim that their language may be a direct continuation of the Old Turkish language spoken by the Turkish-speaking population of Anatolia in the Middle Ages. In addition, the dialect contains questions from Georgian (Kartolit), Kazakh, Uzbek and other languages. History of Settlement Meskatean Turks historically inhabited the southern and southwestern regions of Georgia, located south of the Mesakhti Range.
In November 1944, as part of Joseph Stalin's repressive policy of forced displacement of peoples, the continuing Turks were forcibly removed from the Georgian SSR. They were sent to Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
After the decision on rehabilitation was made in 1956, some of the continuing Turks began to return or move to other areas. They migrated to Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus.