E/CN.4/2003/24 page 33 residence was assigned for this category of Soviet citizens in the regions of the non-chernozem zone of RSFSR (including Moscow region), as well as in Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk regions. While Krasnodar territory is not one of the regions designated for such resettlement and does not have the necessary infrastructure, in 1989 and 1990, after the massacres in Fergana and Tashkent regions of the Uzbek SSR, some 15,000 Meskhetian Turks moved, on their own initiative, to Krasnodar territory (including 10,000 in the districts of Abinsk and Krymsk), with a view to settling definitively in the Akhaltsikhe region in Georgia, where they are originally from. In accordance with article 23, paragraph 3, of the Act of the Russian Federation on the right of citizens of the Russian Federation to move freely and choose freely their place of sojourn or residence within the national borders, “place of residence” means the house, apartment or any other dwelling where a person resides permanently or most of the time as the owner, by virtue of a contract or lease, or for any other reason provided for in Russian legislation. The majority of Meskhetian Turks do not register their deed to the lodging that they have acquired. Moreover, in most cases, such acquisition has not been the subject of a written contract. Since they do not have proof, as required under article 6 of the aforementioned Act, of the legal acquisition of their dwelling, the owners cannot register in the place of residence that they have chosen. Since they often do not hold a legal document of permanent residence (residence permit), most Meskhetian Turks do not have the right to be recognized as citizens of the Russian Federation, under the Federal Act on Russian citizenship. Of the 15,500 Meskhetian Turks currently in Krasnodar territory, some 12,000 are stateless persons. The acquisition of Russian nationality by the Meskhetian Turks living in large numbers in Krasnodar territory must be considered on a case-by-case basis, in strict application of the aforementioned Act. Thus, according to the information received from Krasnodar territory court, the district courts of Abinsk, Anapa, Belorechensk and Krymsk examined 42 requests made by Meskhetian Turks with a view to legalizing their residence in Russian territory before the entry into force of the Federal Act on Russian citizenship. Thirty-seven of those requests were approved. The Krymsk district court and the Primorsk district court in Novorossiisk have responded favourably to two complaints lodged by Meskhetian Turks concerning the refusal of officials of the Passport and Visa Service to register them. Currently, 4,000 Meskhetian Turks are officially registered in their place of residence. Some 3,000 of them have been able to establish their Russian citizenship.