Editing Meskhetian Turks (section)

==Origins and terms==
[[File:Meskhetian Turks with banner.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Meskhetian/Ahıska Turks holding a banner which reads "Osmanlıların Torunları: Ahıskalı Türkler" (The Ottoman Grandchildren: Ahıska Turks)]]

Most Meskhetian Turks identify themselves as having descended from [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] settlers.<ref>Helmut Glück: Metzler Lexikon Sprache, 2005, p. 774</ref> Pro-[[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] historiography has traditionally argued that the Meskhetian Turks, who speak the [[Kars]] dialect of the [[Turkish language]] and belong to the [[Hanafi]] school of [[Sunni Islam]], are simply [[Turkification|Turkified]] [[Meskhetians]] (an ethnographic subgroup of [[Georgians]]) converted to Islam in the period between the sixteenth century and 1829, when the region of [[Samtskhe–Javakheti]] (Historical [[Meskheti]]) was under the rule of the [[Ottoman Empire]], theory of the Georgian historians is supported by the fact Meskhetian Turks genetically are closely related to [[Georgians]]<ref name="Khazanov 1995 loc=195">{{Harvnb|Khazanov|1995|loc=195}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=FamilyTreeDNA - Ahiska DNA Project (Meskhetia) |url=https://www.familytreedna.com/public/AkhaltsikheAhiskaTurks?iframe=yresults |access-date=2024-02-29 |website=www.familytreedna.com}}</ref> However, the Russian anthropologist and historian Professor [[Anatoly Khazanov|Anatoly Michailovich Khazanov]] has argued against the pro-Georgian narrative and has said that:

{{blockquote|it is quite possible that the adherents of this [pro-Georgian] view oversimplified the ethnic history of the group, particularly if one compares it with another Muslim Georgian group, the [[Adzhar]], who in spite of their conversion to Islam have retained, not only the [[Georgian language]], but to some extent also the Georgian traditional culture and self-identification. Contrary to this, the traditional culture of Meskhetian Turks, though it contained some Georgian elements, was similar to the Turkish one.<ref name="Khazanov 1995 loc=195"/>}}

However, when making this comparison, Michailovich ignores the period during which the Adjara and Mesheti regions were under Turkish rule. Turkish-Armenian writer [[Sevan Nişanyan|Nişanyan]] explains the loss of the Georgian language by the Meskhetians, although the Adjarians preserved the Georgian language, as follows:

<blockquote>The people of the city of Batumi and the autonomous region of Adjara (and the Borcka-Hopa side of Artvin and the Meydancık valley of Şavşat) are Muslim Georgians, speaking the Adjara dialect. They were subject to Georgia until the 1810s and lived under direct or indirect Christian rule. The people of Ahıska (and Şavşat-Yusufeli, Posof) have lived under Islamic rule for 450 years. They have long spoken Turkish, perhaps intertwined with other elements of Ottoman Islam.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nisanyan1.blogspot.com/2018/03/ahska-turkleri.html|title=Ahıska Türkleri|access-date=6 December 2023|date=2018|work=Sevan Nişanyan / En son yazıları|publisher=nisanyan1.blogspot.com|first=Sevan|last=Nişanyan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207180159/https://nisanyan1.blogspot.com/2018/03/ahska-turkleri.html|archive-date=7 December 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

The DNA evidence has corroborated the Georgian thesis as it shows that Meskhetian Turks are genetically very close to Georgians<ref>https://imgur.com/sd0nqLk</ref>

Anthropologist Kathryn Tomlinson has pointed out that in Soviet documents about the 1944 deportations of the Meskhetian Turks, the community were referred to simply as "Turks" because of their faith Islam, not only them but also every Muslim of Georgia was referred as Turks and that it was after their second deportation from [[Uzbekistan]] that the term "Meskhetian Turks" was invented.<ref name="Tomlinson 2005 loc=111">{{Harvnb|Tomlinson|2005|loc=111}}.</ref> According to Ronald Wixman, the term "Meskhetian" only came into use in the late 1950s.<ref name="Wixman 1984 loc=134">{{Harvnb|Wixman|1984|loc=134}}.</ref> Indeed, the majority of the Meskhetian Turks call themselves simply as "Turks" or "Ahiskan Turks" ({{Langx|tr|Ahıska Türkleri}}) referring to the region, meaning "Turks of Ahiska Region". The Meskhetians claim sometimes that the medieval [[Cumans]]-[[Kipchaks]] of Georgia ([[Kipchaks in Georgia]]) may have been one of their possible ancestors.<ref>Yunusov, Arif. ''The Akhiska (Meskhetian Turks): Twice Deported People''. "Central Asia and Caucasus" (Lulea, Sweden), 1999 # 1(2), p. 162-165.</ref> According to historians, it is less likely because part of the Kipchaks left Georgia during the [[Mongol invasions of Georgia|invasion of Mongols]], while others joined [[Mongols]].