It was November 14, countless of military cars “SudoBakers” were coming. The cars were covered like containers; the car lights illuminated the whole road from Akhaltsikhe to Adigeni. In one night they had to deport about 30 villages only from Adigeni region. That time villages were divided in brigades, 20 families in each. They called all the brigades to come out in the school yard, all villagers including babies. Armed Policemen laid triple siege to a village, a colonel came out and declared that Turkey had declared war and they needed to empty the region, evacuate people to save them. As he finished the speech, the head of collective farm started to read the list, they started deportation from Muslims because the trains were not enough to place all. This was the next day after opening railway in the region.
The order was made, they started to read the list “Ali İsmailoğlu climb up the car with your family, the car is over there” – they climbed
“Gozalishvili Seit climb up the car with your family, Two Georgian families and one Turkish, hei Georgians help them to load the cars, when the transport comes back then you will be deported, the war won’t break our until we finish deportation, this is the order, we have one week”
It was 4:00 pm, we all climbed up the car, and two armed soldiers accompanied each truck; an officer announced that we would depart at 6:00 pm. We had only two hours to load the car with our belongings
We were all neighbors, grown up together; we never paid attention at the religion. We played, ate together, and visited each other’s families; they were Muslims but still Georgians. I decided to help them; people were killing even sheep and loading them together with other belongings, they could not take many things, just food like potatoes, wheat, beds, and clothing.
My father was head of the commission, he walked around the village sealing up the houses, if the house was locked and sealed up, nobody could enter. In two hours 400 000 people were stuffed in a cargo cabs of the train, (50-60 person in each) and sent to Middle Asia.
Soldiers enclosed certain territory near the station and made people to stay there, those that could not fit in the first train had to wait there for two days before other train’s arrival. It took couple of days to deport all
There was one man, Ushot Ismaila, who was against this government and he was almost 60 and wasn’t taken to the war. He was considered to be “Anti Soviet Union” man. So he went to Vale. He was sent to Vale with another man too. He knocked at the door and asked to open it . When behind the door they were asked who they were, the two men answered that they came from Turkey and begged them to open the door in a hurry, because they were afraid that someone would arrest them. After these two men were asked in they told the host family that they were going to start war. They said that they needed their help. At the very moment they were served with tea, as they like it very much. Then the host sent his boys to the neighborhood to bring all of them. Nearly 20-30 families gathered. The two men announced these people about their intention - they were going to start war. The question was how they could help and what they could bring from their families. So, the people said that some of them had “ Karabina”, others guns and “granata”. Mola said that he had two “Pulimiots” and two barrels full of bullets. The unexpected guests wrote down everything ( who could bring what) and promised that after a week they would bring weapons and that they would give them to each of them. The neighbors were glad. So, after two weeks, they really came with weapons despite the borders were locked and under severe control. But they managed to cross the border with the help of their people and brought with them all kinds of weapons. As it was promised , they gave them to the people, made them sign, in order to confirm that they really got weapons and bullets. These people were asked just to shoot and that would be enough. So all these were declared to Stalin. He was informed about 400 000 armed men near the border and hearing this Stalin said just one word: “ Move off! “ So it ended in this way. Like Chechen people were sent into exile, all these people were sent into exile too. As for the exile process, I have already told you how it had happened.
Born in April 22 in 1931, in Vale (Western Georgia). His father Seith Gozalishvili was farmer, his mother was Mariam Gvaramadze. He had 4 brothers. Marcos entered school in Vale, in ninth form he moved to Akhaltsikhe school.
After finishing the school he went to army. For one year he has been studying in Aviation Institute in Baltics, later he entered to Minitary instate at the faculty of Physics and mathematics. Two years later in 1954 after finishing his military service he returned to Vale and continued his studies in Kutaisi College of Mines. Later he entered Tbilisi Technical University at the faculty of transport
Marcos was married to Lili Topuria in 1960. He has 3 children and two grandchildren.
For many years he has been working as a director at Akhaltsikhe Transport Union, for the recent years he has been working for World Bank project.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
