Some 74 years ago, Meskhetian Turks were deported from their homeland in Soviet Georgia. They've been trying to return to the region ever since.
“We were herded onto freight trains on the night of Nov. 14-15, 1944, and deported to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Actually, we have never gotten out of that train," said Hassan Memetoglu, describing how Meskhetian Turks see their seemingly unending exile. Memetoglu, who was later transferred to his second exile destination in Ukraine, made it to Turkey in 1999, lived there as an illegal immigrant, got his residence permit and waited three more years for his Turkish citizenship. Many Meshketian Turks would like to move to Turkey; Georgia's Meskheti region, which is along the Turkish border, once was part of the Ottoman Empire.