[citation needed] Under the Ottoman Empire, Samtskhe-Javakheti was heavily Islamised producing a Turkish ethnicity within the southwestern region of Georgia.
The Turkish community were originally native to the Georgian-Turkish border area and forcibly displaced to Central Asia on November 15, 1944.
[1] The majority of Turks settled in Uzbekistan, however, in 1989, anti-Meskhetian riots broke out due to their superior living standards and economic well-being in an area heavily struck by unemployment.
In June 1945 Vyacheslav Molotov, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, formally presented a demand to the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow for the surrender of three Anatolian provinces (Kars, Ardahan and Artvin).
Thus, war against Turkey seemed possible, and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Turkish population (especially those situated in Meskheti) located near the Turkish-Georgian border which were likely to be hostile to Soviet intentions.