The Ahıska Turks are hopeful that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will mediate between Ukraine and Russia to bring an end to the ongoing tensions in the region.
"Our hope is that Erdoğan will bring the presidents of the two states (Russia and Ukraine) together and there will be no war. It will end with friendship," Sadri Ahmedov, head of the Association of Ahıska Turks of the Donetsk region, told Anadolu Agency (AA) in an interview.
On Nov. 14, 1944, around 100,000 Ahıska Turks, also known as Meskhetian Turks, were deported by Soviet leader Josef Stalin from their ancestral lands in Georgia's Meskheti region to distant parts of the USSR, according to the World Ahıska Turks Association. Some of the expelled Ahıska Turks were settled in Ukraine in 1989.
Despite harsh conditions, they preserved their identity over the decades and passed on their cultural heritage to future generations.
Due to the conflict that broke out between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine in 2014, most Ahıska Turks living in the region were allowed to move to Turkey and settle in the eastern Erzincan province on Erdoğan's initiative.
Some Ahıska Turks had to leave the region due to the conflict in 2014, Ahmedov noted and added that though they lost their property, they were not killed in the instability.
Ahmedov said that he, along with several other Ahıska Turk families who continued to live in the city of Slovyansk in the northern part of the Donetsk region, had a difficult time in mid-2014 when pro-Russian separatists seized control of the area.
Slovyansk, an important railway junction of the region and once a stronghold for the separatists, was recaptured in July 2014 by Ukrainian government forces following weeks of siege.
"There were days when we couldn't find food, because the shops were not working, you couldn't see anyone at the bus stops. Everywhere was quiet. There were no people around. Thanks to Allah that those days are behind us. Now, we're living normally," he said.
Ahmedov, a lawyer by profession, said there were roughly 200 Ahıska Turks living in the region today.
"There's a saying that sometimes, accidents bring good. The war in 2014 paved the way for us to return to our homeland," stressed the regional Ahıska leader.
He underlined that 677 Ahıska Turk families have moved to Erzincan so far and that 46 other families were in the process of relocating.
Ahmedov said Ahıska families living in Donbass had integrated into the rest of society as they study, work and live "shoulder to shoulder" with each other.
They also enjoy very good relations with other groups in Ukraine, with whom they are "like brothers," Ahmedov added, emphasizing that the Ukrainian people in the region were dismayed to see their Ahıska neighbors leave in 2014.
Today, Ahıska Turks are scattered across nine countries and number up to half a million people in total.
Iskender Osmanov, another Ahıska Turk resident of the region, recalled that when clashes broke out between the two sides in 2014, bombs fell on the region and they fled to shelters.
"Nobody needs this war, I don't want a war anywhere," said Osmanov, who is engaged mainly in farming.
He added that they have been living in the same place for the past 32 years and that the locals have "accepted and helped" them when they moved from Uzbekistan in 1989.
Osmanov also voiced hope that Erdoğan will act as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow to help calm the tensions between them and the conflict in the area.
In an interview broadcast last week, Erdoğan said Turkey is ready to host the leaders of Russia and Ukraine in order to "pave the way for reestablishing peace" as tensions between the two countries show little sign of diminishing.
"Turkey wants tensions between Russia and Ukraine to be resolved before they turn into a new crisis," the president stated.
He meanwhile reiterated Turkey's "clear" stance on Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Turkey has been closely following the developments and is in close contact with both Kyiv and Moscow. Erdoğan had said Turkey could mediate between the neighbors amid increasing tensions in the region and recently announced a visit to Ukraine on Feb. 3 to help defuse tensions; likewise, Putin said he would visit Turkey upon Erdoğan’s invitation when the pandemic situation and schedules allow.
NATO member Turkey has friendly ties with both Kyiv and Moscow but opposes Russian policies in Syria and Libya, as well as its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Kyiv has also bought Turkish drones to possibly use against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine, angering Moscow, and agreed with Ankara to manufacture the drones locally this year.
Since 2014, Russia has been supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, a policy it has maintained for the past eight years.
As tensions rise with Kyiv and the West, Moscow has in recent months amassed well over 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine.
In response to Russia's actions, NATO enhanced its presence in the eastern bloc, with four multinational battalion-size battlegroups deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on a rotational basis.
The Muslim community of the town of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine is still hopeful for "peace and goodness" amid the recent escalation of tensions in the region.
Though the industrial town in the Donbass region fell into the hands of pro-Russian separatists for a time in 2014, the Ukrainian army later managed to regain control.
Vitaly Koritsky, a Ukrainian man born and raised in the city of Slovyansk in the northern part of the Donetsk region, told AA that he met his future wife of Turkish descent in the same city. Both later converted to Islam in Donetsk city, moving to live in Kostiantynivka.
Koritsky, 31, said the situation "worsened" in 2014, adding that none of the town's residents fled elsewhere as "there was no other place to go."
He underlined that the Muslim community in the area has faced regular threats during the conflict.
"We got used to all these things for so many years, we've seen both war and shootings ... Of course, we'd like peace and goodness, as it was before, when there were no problems and people were living better," Koritsky said.
"By the will of Allah, may everything be good and may there be no fighting," he added.
Avaz Shiraliyev, a 62-year-old businessperson with roots in Azerbaijan who has resided in Ukraine for over 30 years, said the Muslim community in Kostiantynivka has grown in number compared to what it was a decade ago, when a few people started to construct the town's first mosque out of their own pockets.
Shiraliyev, who is also the head of the Bulag Association of Muslims in Kostiantynivka, said that though nearly 1,000 Muslims live nearby, only about 60 families actively take part in their community's affairs.
He underlined that currently, the general situation was "fine" in his area, adding that he was not sure how the ongoing tensions with Russia would play out.
"The political situation, to some extent, affects the life of every person, including economically, financially, employment-wise, and the livelihood of the people," he said, noting that before the conflict, the nearby cities of Donetsk and Luhansk had provided more employment opportunities.
Shiraliyev emphasized that the town's Muslim community has "very good, respect-based mutual relations" with their neighbors and locals.
Abdullah Taibov, 66, is another Kostiantynivka resident who said that "so far, no Ukrainian or Russian offended" him and that he lives in harmony with the local people.
"We live with good neighborly relations with everybody. We live with a full sense of respect and always help one another," said Taibov, an ethnic Lezgin from the Dagestan region of Russia. He has lived in Ukraine for nearly five decades.
On the situation of the Muslim community in the area, Taibov said they had purchased the land on which to build their mosque early in 1986-1987. By working together and with the help of several people and organizations, he said, they managed to build their first mosque, where many of the area's Muslims gather for prayers, special occasions and holidays.
Taibov noted that after the fighting broke out in 2014, friends who had previously lived in Donetsk returned to areas under Ukrainian government control after living conditions deteriorated in places seized by the pro-Russian separatist groups.
He was, however, hopeful that the border tensions with Russia will be resolved and said: "I think that, by the grace of Allah, nothing bad will happen. We don't want anything to happen ... I think it (the conflict) will pass by us."
"I think every normal person would always want peace, especially Muslims ... We wish for peace and goodness upon all," Taibov added.
Recalling how, in 2014, they witnessed gunfire and rockets flying overhead, Taibov said: "May this war end as soon as possible. There's nothing good about it ... I think everything will end quietly and peacefully."
