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Several Ahiska Muslims packing to leave for the US
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By
Damir Ahmed, IOL correspondent
KRASNODAR,
Russia, July 24, (IslamOnline.net) - The United States has agreed to
grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in
Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23.
The
first 11-strong batch of the Ahiska Muslims, living in the Russian
province of Krasnodar, left for Geneva on Thursday, July 22, before
flying to Philadelphia, reported Novie Izvestia.
It
added that the Muslims would be housed near the grand mosque in
Philadelphia.
The
paper recalled that Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev was notified
of the American decision on February 15.
Izvestia
said the Russian government does not treat Ahiska Muslims as citizens
and has not therefore given them passports or IDs.
An
official in Krasnodar administration had told Interfax on Tuesday,
July 20, that of the 11,999 Ahiska Muslims living in the region, 4,943
have received Russian citizenship and 744 have embarked on Russian
naturalization procedures.
He
added that more than 5,000 others have expressed a desire to emigrate
to the United States.
Earlier,
Chingiz Neiman-zade, chairman of Vatan, a Meskheti
Turks association based in Georgia, said the United
States had offered to accept the Ahiska Muslims living in Krasnodar as
immigrants.
"On
February 16, the International Migration Organization began an
information program in Krasnodar to explain the terms for the
resettlement of the Ahiska Muslims in the U.S.," he told Chicago
Tribune on Thursday, July 22.
"The
immigrants will be provided with housing and furniture, they will be
helped to learn the English language and to complete formalities
needed for residence in the US, which is especially important, and
have been promised life-long welfare allowances for pensioners and the
disabled."
Happiness
Ahiska
Muslims were happy with the American offer.
"This
decision marks a great change in our life", said Tepeshon
Swanidze, leader of the Ahiska Muslim community in Russia.
"We
thank the US administration for its humanitarian decision", he
added.
Ahiska
Muslims , originally
hailing from Anatolia, were exiled from their homeland after Russia
seized the region of Ahiska following its 1828-1829 war with the
Ottoman Empire.
Many
Ahiska Muslims were forced to seek refugee in Erzurum in eastern
Turkey after being persecuted by the Russian Cesar for supporting the
Ottoman Empire.
Facing
a similar fate under the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Ahiska
Muslims fled to Uzbekistan in 1944.
One
year later, they went to Azerbaijan where they currently reside.
Turkish
and Azeri parliamentarians had recently appealed for an international
intervention to pressure the Georgian government into
allowing the return of Ahiska Muslims.
Ahiska
became part of Georgia in 1918.
