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Originally Posted by ariel
Kubur,
You are absolutely correct: your example is Indian.
But both Saracen and I are talking about about 2 other things: the tip of the scabbard tilting up , reminescent of the Turkish yataghan “ dolphin” and the locket with asymmetric opening ( throat).
Meskhetian Turks self-identify as simply Turks: their language is Kars Turkish dialect, they follow Turkish customs etc. The word “ Meskhetian” was added only after 1989, after Soviet authorities exiled them from Uzbekistan to Southern Russia and Ukraine. Samtskhe -Javakheti was Ottoman most of the time, and was divided between Georgia ( Russia, in fact) and the Ottoman Empire only in the 19 century. This region was always a weapon -producing center: Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki were the hubs ( see Astvatsaturyan).
Presence of itinerant Caucasian masters in Central Asia since at least late 1800s is well known.
But presence of at least few masters among more than 100,000 Georgian Turks exiled to Central Asia in 1944 is also likely. That was exactly my question about possible dating of Gonzoadler’s scabbard. Among the daggers shown earlier ( a group on the carpeted wall) the only one that interests me is the rightmost one: configuration of the throat ( opening of the scabbard) is identical to his one. Regretfully no proof of attribution or dating was provided.
The story of “Meskheti” Turks is tragic: their culture was utterly destroyed by the genocidal Soviet authorities and they are the only exiled ethnic group not allowed to return till today. See Ph.D dissertations of Hulya Dogan and Kathryn Tomlinson.
In modern Russia they are still hopelessly poor pariahs, not allowed to own property , vote or emigrate.Two consecutive exiles ( 1944 and 1989) robbed them of their belongings and history.
Studying their weapons is currently possible only in Turkey, where they enjoy full rights. That might be a priceless contribution by a professional weapon historian. One just needs to find such a person.
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Again, there are a lot of empty words that are not related to the topic of discussion. It is not clear why this political information about the "USSR - an empire of evil" is in the subject)))) I remind Ariel, who left the USSR so long ago that he forgot that carrying knives (like any other weapon) was prohibited in the USSR after the WW2 war. I wrote above about working with precious metals (silver) at the state level.
An exception was made only for the inhabitants of the Caucasus and only for national holidays.
And even more so in the post-war USSR, no one would have allowed representatives of the people resettled to other territories to engage in the manufacture of knives or some of their elements.