By Sa’ad Abdul Majid, IOL Correspondent

ISTANBUL, July 15 (IslamOnline.net) – Turkish and Azeri parliamentarians also appealed for an international intervention to pressure the Georgian government into allowing the return of Ahiska Muslims after more than 60 years of forced migration.

"Ahiska Turks have suffered a lot, and they have the right return and help develop Georgia," Azeri Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hassanov told a conference hosted by the Azeri capital Baku on July 13-14.

Other participants urged the United Nations to get involved in efforts to resolve the long-standing crisis of the Ahiska Muslims.

A delegation of 14 Turkish MPs and members of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party attended the first conference on Ahiska Muslims.

Addressing the conference, the Turkish Parliament deputy speaker said it is time for the return for Ahiska Muslims to their homeland.

Around 16,000 Ahiska Turks live in Baku and other areas near borders with Georgia.

They have been lobbying for decades for the right to return to their villages in southwestern Georgia from which they were deported en masse to Central Asia in November 1944.

Ahiska Muslims, originally hailing from Anatolia, were exiled from their homeland after Russia seized the region of Ahiska following its 1828-1829 war with the Ottoman Empire.

Many Ahiska Muslims were forced to seek refugee in Erzurum in eastern Turkey after being persecuted by the Russian Cesar for supporting the Ottoman Empire.

Facing a similar fate under the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Ahiska Muslims fled to Uzbekistan in 1944.

One year later, they went to Azerbaijan where they currently reside.

There are now about 15-16 thousand Ahiska Muslims living in the country in areas near the borders with Georgia.

Georgia has not allowed their return ever since.

Armenian Plot

Ansar Euwart, a member of the opposition Turkish Republican Party, said the forced migration of Ahiska Turks was part of an Armenian scenario to create the Great Armenia State, force Muslims out of the Caucasian region and control oil riches there.

He called on the Turkish government to run railways with Georgia in order to send aid to Muslims and abort Armenia’s expansionist ambitions.

Islam was first introduced to Ahiska in the 642 hijri year. The region was seized by the Ottoman empire in the 16^{th century.}

A truce was held between Turkey and Russia in 1918, whereby Ahiska was given to the Turkish before coming under the control of the Russian in 1921.

Ahiska became part of Georgia in 1918.

Georgian Muslims, who represent a quarter of the population, are coming under heavy pressures from President Mikhael Saakashvili.

In May of this year Saakashvili, backed by the United States and Russia, forced the president of Agaria, a self-rule republic where most Muslims of Georgia live, to step down and live in exile in Russia.