He's a ethnic Turkic Ahiska. As far as İ remember from the oghuz branch just as Turks/azeri/turkmen.
They used to live in the ottoman empire(caucasian area). But after Caucasia fel they became part of Russia. Stalin tried to get rid of them from the Turkish border. So basically he and me, are nearly the same (very close to anatolian Turks) .
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Ahiska , İ don't understand one thing. After caucasia fell, most of the muslims like georgian and circassian muslims moved out towards ottoman territory. Why didn't the Ahiska Turks followed them?