Stalinist Russia considered the Meskhetian Turks a "problem" on several fronts. As Turkish-speaking Muslims, Meskhetian Turks had strong social ties to Turkey and proved as a group to be resistant to Soviet assimilation. Inhabitants of the Meskheti-Javakheti region of southeastern Georgia, they occupied a strategic border with Turkey's Kars-Ardahan region, which Russia eyed with intent to reclaim. In July of 1944, Stalin developed a plan to resettle the Turkish, Kurdish and Hemshin (Turkish-speaking Muslim Armenian) residents of Meskheti-Javakheti.

Restrictions on resettled communities were relaxed after the 1953 death of Stalin, but resettled Meskhetian Turks were barred from returning to Georgia. A right-of-return movement that begin in 1956 was set back in the 1970s with the Soviet government's arrest of Meskhetian leadership. Meskhetians developed several plans for repatriation over this time, including one that would allow Meskhetian Turks to resettle in Turkey. Tensions between Meskhetians and other groups came to a head in 1989 with what Pohl characterized as a pogrom against a Meskhetian community living in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan: about 100 Meskhetians were killed and their houses burnt.

Meskhetian Turks formed the group Vatan in 1990 to speak to Moscow on Meskhetian Turkish issues. In 1996, Eduard Shevardnadze, then-president of Georgia, signed a decree promising to repatriate 5,000 Meskhetian Turks by 2000. In 1999, Georgia promised the Council of Europe to have Meskhetian Turks repatriated within 12 years. So far, however, less than 1,000 of the 300,000 Meskhetian Turks living today have been allowed to return to Georgia. Turkey has opened its doors to about 20,000 Meskhetians since 1990. The majority of Meskhetian Turks live in communities in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, with smaller populations in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Pohl says Meskhetians have bonded closer in their sense of “Turkishness” over the course of the last 60 years, though many appear to be integrated into their new regions. They have maintained the Turkish language connection orally and continue to practice Islam, albeit often in a secularized form. Meskhetian Turks have integrated with relative success, however, in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan because of some cultural similarities. Meskhetians in Uzbekistan tend to be urbanized and working in the merchant class. Leaders in each of these regions continue to push for rights of return, but leadership is fragmented, Pohl says.

The exception to Meskhetian integration is in Russia's Krasnodar Krai region, where some 15,000 Meskhetians live without recognized citizenship or residency permits and under continual harassment from local authorities and ethnic groups. This group is the current focus of most Meskhetian Turk activists.

Georgia's recent change of leadership does not appear inclined to move forward on the nation's promise to repatriate Meskhetian Turks, as it must first face renewed separatist agitation by Ajarians and other internal groups, as well as resistance from ethnic Armenians living in Georgia who oppose the return of Meskhetian Turks. The Turkish government has also expressed reluctance at allowing Meskhetians permanent entry into Turkey, favoring resettlement in Georgia. Azerbaijan is reluctant to jeopardize relations with Georgia. Russia has in the past expressed concerns over the fate of deported peoples, but Pohl sees the Meskhetians as too small a group to command significant Russian attention. Pohl does not believe the return of Meskhetian Turks to Georgia or Turkey is likely.

The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline raises a number of issues pertinent to the Meskhetians, as its path will likely cut through Meskheti or Ajaria in Georgia. Meskhetians have not issued formal statements on the pipeline, Pohl says, but questions of compensation will have to be addressed in the near future.