President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday met Ahıska Turks in New York and handed out ID cards for those who were granted citizenship. The president, in the U.S. to attend the U.N. General Assembly, said that Türkiye was accelerating the process for Ahıska Turks, also known as Meskhetian Turks, to gain Turkish citizenship.
Speaking at a community gathering, Erdoğan stated that Türkiye does not regard its peace and well-being as distinct from its own citizens. "We are taking the necessary steps for them to acquire Turkish citizenship, which they have desired for years and we are accelerating that process," he said.
"Since 2022, 820 of our kinsmen have attained Turkish citizenship. We will quickly complete our work for our 578 kinsmen whose procedures are still ongoing," he said. "Before our term, the number of Meskhetian Turks who were granted citizenship was very limited. In our term, this number has surpassed 60,000."
Ahıska Turks were expelled from the Meskheti region of Georgia by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1944. They also faced discrimination and human rights abuses before and after the Soviet deportation.
Eighty-six-year-old Mihrali Mametoğlu and 83-year-old Yunus Muradov were among the oldest who were granted citizenship. Mametoğlu and Muradov thanked Türkiye for giving them citizenship at the event Erdoğan attended. "May nobody suffer from what I suffered," Mametoğlu, who was 8 years old during his family's exile, said. Muradov said all Muslims rallied for Erdoğan because he became like a father to them. "This man is also like a father for all Turks," he hailed the president. "You are all aware of what we've gone through. Nobody can forget his past. I thank Mr. President. We will never suffer again as long as you are with us," Muradov said.
On Sunday, Erdoğan also received Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at the Turkish House (Türkevi) in New York. They discussed the importance of implementing the Middle Corridor.
Erdoğan highlighted the swift operationalization of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway as a key priority, according to the Turkish Presidency. The Trans-Caspian East-West-Middle Corridor Initiative, also known as "the Middle Corridor," which begins in Türkiye and passes through the Caucasus region via Georgia and Azerbaijan, crosses the Caspian Sea, traverses Central Asia and reaches China, is one of the most important components of efforts to revive the ancient Silk Road, according to Türkiye's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During their meeting, Erdoğan also thanked Georgia for its support after the major earthquakes in Türkiye in February, according to a statement from Türkiye's Directorate of Communications.
The president also stressed the importance of closing schools run by the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ) in Georgia and freezing their assets and congratulated the Georgian administration for the steps taken on this issue, according to the statement. The two leaders also stressed the importance of increasing the trade volume between Türkiye and Georgia from $3 billion to $5 billion (TL 81.04 billion to TL 135.07 billion).
