
The Meskhetian Turks were deported from Georgia to Central Asia for supposedly pro-Turkish sentiments and orientations during the Stalin era. As a condition for membership in the Council of Europe in 1999, the Georgian government agreed to allow the Meskhetians, whose population is estimated at 200,000 - 300,000, to return within twelve years to their homeland -- land that will encompass the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. J. Otto Pohl, a PhD candidate at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, will describe the plight of the Meskhetian Turks and trace the importance of even the tiniest ethnic groups to geopolitical oil, energy and power.