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    "label": "Report, Appendix \"F\" to Situation Report 1, Soviet Territorial Demands on Turkey",
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    "title": "Report, Appendix \"F\" to Situation Report 1, Soviet Territorial Demands on Turkey",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nTurks able to speak Georgian, they are Moslems and therefore have an\nentirely different background and outlook from those Georgians across\nthe border whose ancestors have been Christians for many centuries.\nThey are becoming increasingly more assimilable into the Turkish popu-\nlation as a whole. Some of them already, under the regime of the ultra-\nnationalist republic, have held high posts in the government and even on\nthe army's General Staff.\nIt is not known how many Lazes and Ajars live in the area. The\n1935 census states that there were 63,253 Laz-speaking people in the\nwhole of Turkey; the total number of Ajars is not known, but is probably\nmuch less. Probably most of the people in these groups live in the ter-\nritory covered by the Soviet claims. Traditionally, the country of the\nLazes (Lazistan) is the area approximately covered by the Provinces of\nCoruh and Kars and extending a short distance into the USSR, although\nsome Laz communities may still be found along the Black Sea coast to a\npoint slightly west of Trabzon. The country of the Ajars (Ajaristan),\nmostly in Coruh Province, extends from Hopa to the USSR border and some\ndistance inland from that stretch of Turkey's Black Sea coastline.\nKurds and Circassians also live within the areas claimed. Most\nof the Kurds in Turkey (totalling about 1,500,000) live south of even\nthe extreme limit of the most ambitious Soviet Armenian claims. The\nCircassians, whose religion -- like that of the Kurds -- is Islam, are\nbeing assimilated into the Turkish population. It is doubtful whether\nthey will retain their racial identity in Turkey more than a few gener-\nations, if the present regime is continued, although a few communities\nstill maintain a separate existence in various parts of northern and\nwestern Anatolia.\nF-10\nSECRET"
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