Ahıska Turks evacuated from Ukraine and brought to Türkiye in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine war are now celebrating moving into permanent homes built for them in the Ahlat district of Bitlis, eastern Türkiye.

Officials from Türkiye’s Interior Ministry and the Presidency of Migration Management visited the Ahıska Turk families in their new homes in Ahlat, according to a statement issued by the Presidency of Migration Management on Thursday.

During the visit, Republic of Türkiye identity cards were presented to representatives of the 371 families.

Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi welcomed the development in a social media post.

"We are pleased to have helped another 371 of the Ahıska Turk families we hosted at our temporary accommodation center move into their homes,” Çiftçi said.

He added that the families had also been provided with identity cards and wished them "a peaceful life in their new homes.”

Ahıska Turks, also known as Meskhetian Turks, are a Turkic community originally from the Ahıska region of southern Georgia. They were forcibly deported by the Soviet government in 1944 and scattered across several countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Türkiye.