Turkey, a new home for Ukraine's Meshketian Turks

Meshketian Turks, a Turkic community sent into a brutal exile under the Soviet regime, head to Turkey decades after their displacement, which saw the community scattered all across the Russian Federation.

Ninety-two families, consisting of 347 people, were flown to Turkey from Ukraine upon the order of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Friday. They were welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan.

The country is preparing to host 677 Meshketian Turkic families from Ukraine, which is gripped by tensions triggered by pro-Russian separatists.

A number of 347 people make up part of the larger group of Meshketian Turks caught in the crossfire between the two sides in the Ukrainian conflict. They will be settled in the eastern provinces of Erzincan and Bitlis in homes provided by the state-run Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ), which arranges residences for low-income citizens.

Known as Ahıska Turks in Turkey, which already hosts a considerable population of this Turkic community, the Meshketian Turks were facing another displacement just 26 years after being forced to flee Uzbekistan following a violent pogrom in which they were deported by the Soviet regime in 1944 from their homeland in Georgia.