The homeland of the Meskhetian Turks is in the Georgian region of Russia, near the Turkish border, according to an information sheet provided by Women in Ministry of the Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian Church and John Miller, of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

In 1944, Stalin deported nearly 100,000 Mezkhetian Turks to Uzbekistan and areas of Central Asia because he feared they might ally themselves with Adolph Hitler in Germany and because he wanted to reclaim the border territory.

In 1989, the Turks were deported again, after some were killed and had their homes burned, with about 17,000 of them ending up in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar.

For the Krasnodar Turks, including the group now in the Pittsburgh area, the persecution continued with the denial of permanent residency rights or citizenship. That restricts their access to pensions, child benefits, health care and education.

"Our ancestors had to move many times. It made them nervous," said El Ran Muradova, 16, a refugee who is attending Mt. Lebanon High School.

Moving to the United States offered the families a chance to start again in a country where they won't be persecuted, she said.

In Russia, the Turkish children were in different classes from the Russian children. They attended school through 11th grade. After that, students who had citizenship papers could continue onto the universities.

But because many of the Turks were never granted citizenship, they were left to work at whatever jobs they could find.

Naziya Lomidze, a refugee living in Mt. Lebanon, said many of her fellow Turks worked in construction or in greenhouses. Others, she said, stayed home, tending the family garden and animals, milking the cows and selling the milk at the market.

Their homes had only cold running water, not hot. To do laundry, they first had to boil the water.

They had electricity, but no gas, using coal to heat their homes.